UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT  OF 

MRS.MATTIK   H.MERRILL 


FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP 


IN 


RELIGION. 


A    COLLECTION  OF  ESSAYS  AND 
ADDRESSES 

EDITED  BY  A  COMMITTEE 
OF 


CI;e  JTree  ffieUgtou* 


BOSTON':  ,.,; 
ROBERTS     BROTHERS. 

1875. 


Copyright,  1875, 
BY  ROBERTS  BROTHERS. 


. 
. .   .  • . . 


Cambridge ; 
Press  of  John.  Wilson  and  Son. 


33 


CONTEXTS. 


PAOE 

INTRODUCTORY.    THE  RELIGIOUS  OUTLOOK    ....        1 

A 

THE  NATURE  OF  RELIGION.    By  David  A.  Wasson  .      17 

THE  UNITY  AND  UNIVERSALITY  OF  THE  RELIGIOUS 

- 

IDEAS.  By  Samuel  Longfellow 46 

FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  By  Samuel  Johnson  ...  93 
RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  By  John  Weiss  ....  135 
CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.  By  William  J. 

Potter 178 

THE  GENIUS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  AND  FREE  RELI- 

GION.  By  Francis  Ellingwood  Abbot 222 

THE  SOUL  OF  PROTESTANTISM.  By  0.  B.  Froth- 

ingham 265 

LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.  By  John 

W.  Chadwick 299 

THE  WORD  PHILANTHROPY.  By  Thomas  Wentworth 

Higginson 323 

RELIGION  AS  SOCIAL  FORCE.  By  Ednah  D.  Cheney  338 


VOICES   FROM   THE   FREE   PLATFORM 355 


2065 P: 


INTRODUCTORY. 


THE  RELIGIOUS   OUTLOOK. 

THAT  religion  still  occupies  the  thoughts  of  men 
as  a  great  human  concern  need  not  be  argued. 

O  O 

It  may  be  said  to  occupy  them  as  it  never  did  in  times 
when  it  claimed  an  interest  on  grounds  of  its  own, 
wholly  separate  from  other  human  affairs.  The  relig- 
ious question  now  makes  a  part  of  every  question. 
There  is  scarcely  a  concern  of  any  moment  in  which 
religion  does  not  hold  a  conspicuous  rank.  It  is  de- 
bated in  the  highest  places ;  it  is  the  business  of  empires ; 
it  occupies  the  thoughts  of  princes  and  administrators; 
politicians  make  account  of  it;  statesmen  and  dema- 
gogues alike  take  bearings  from  it.  It  haunts  the  sci- 
entific mind ;  literature  cannot  leave  it  unrecognized ; 

*  O  ' 

philosophy  finds  it  mingling  in  all  its  problems.  The 
social  questions  that  vex  our  age  address  themselves  to 
it  less  directly  indeed,  but  no  less  earnestly,  than  of  old. 
They  who  talk  of  the  declining  interest  in  religion  can- 
not be  close  observers  of  the  times.  The  forms  the 
interest  takes  may  have  changed,  but  the  interest  was 
never  so  vital  before. 

The  religious  aspect  certainly  has   changed.      The 
theological  epoch  draws  near  its  close.     Fifteen  years 

1 


2  INTRODUCTOET. 

ago,  Mr.  Buckle  called  attention  to  this,  and  supported 
his  position  by  quotations  from  eminent  authorities  of 
the  English  Church.  The  impulse  given  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  II.,  when  the  Royal  Society  received  its 
charter,  —  an  impulse  clearly  understood  as  committing 
the  English  mind  to  natural  studies  as  distinguished 
from  supernatural,  —  has  gone  on  with  accelerating  mo- 
tion ever  since,  until  now  the  books  on  natural  science 
outrank  in  power,  if  they  do  not  in  number,  the  works 
on  theology.  The  great  writers  in  dogmatic  and  spec- 
ulative theology  are  of  the  past.  Warburton,  Cudworth, 
Barrow,  Taylor,  Hooker,  are  little  read  ;  and  such  inter- 
est in  them  as  remains  is  due  rather  to  their  rhetoric 
than  to  their  reasoning.  The  human  mind  has  aban- 
doned that  province.  The  press  of  England  and 
America  still  pours  out  pamphlets  and  booklets,  ex- 
pository and  polemical,  with  a  persistency  born  of 
ancient  habit;  but  the  tractates  are  written  for  the 
most  part  by  divines  who  like  to  see  themselves  in 
print,  and,  having  nothing  vital  to  talk  about,  talk  about 
the  doctrines  of  the  church.  The  quality  of  the  lit- 
erature — if  literature  it  can  be  called  —  is  thin,  weak, 
sentimental ;  its  readers  are  the  personal  friends  of  the 
authors,  or  the  pensive  devotees  of  the  church  in  whose 
interest  they  write.  The  working  mind  of  the  age 
turns  from  theological  questions  with  a  kind  of  disgust ; 
and  as  no  great  thinker  engages  in  obsolete  or  unreal 
speculations,  the  literature  of  theology  languishes.  To 
one  who  remembers  the  place  it  held  but  half  a  century 
ago,  this  fact  is  of  profound  significance. 

The  disposition  to  discuss  religion  in  its  political  re- 
lations is  another  sign  of  a  new  era.  This  disposition 
has  been  gaining  force  for  two  centuries  and  more, — from 


INTRODUCTORY.  3 

the  reign  of  James  I.  Dr.  Arnold  called  attention  to 
it  in  his  lectures  on  modern  history.  In  our  day  the 
fact  declares  itself  in  a  way  not  to  be  misunderstood. 
It  implies  that  religion  must  justify  its  existence  to 
society,  must  meet  the  human  mind  on  its  natural 
plane,  must  accept  the  methods  of  science,  and  secure 
its  title  to  support  by  the  .cordiality  with  which  it 
accepts  the  conditions  of  ordinary  life. 

The  establishment  of  the  scientific  method  is  another 
fact  of  vast  moment  to  the  religious  world  of  our  gen- 
eration. Scientific  men  no  longer  apologize :  they  assert 
with  an  emphasis  the  theologian  cannot  surpass.  They 
have  their  dogma ;  they  lay  down  their  law ;  they  speak 
with  an  authority  that  carries  weight  from  the  power 
of  their  achievements,  as  well  as  from  the  splendor  of 
their  talent.  Their  audience  is  immense,  intelligent, 
enthusiastic :  it  comprehends  the  strongest  thinkers  and 
most  earnest  workers.  Their  literary  performances  are 
marvellous  for  copiousness  and  brilliancy :  they  compel 
attention  and  enforce  the  necessity,  if  not  of  accept- 
ing special  results,  at  least  of  adjusting  beliefs  to  a  new 
method. 

Christianity  is  now  on  trial  at  the  bar  behind  which 
it  had  sat  as  judge  for  a  thousand  years;  and  the  judge 
on  the  bench  is  the  scientific  spirit  it  had  so  often  re- 
manded to  the  dungeon  or  consigned  to  the  flames. 
Its  dogma  is  discredited  in  the  high  places  of  thought. 
Repeated  modifications,  definitions,  restatements,  made 
for  the  purpose  of  readjusting  it  to  the  human  mind, 
have  so  far  impaired  its  integrity,  loosened  its  compact- 
ness, and  thinned  its  substance,  that  even  in  its  private 
haunts,  among  its  most  staunch  friends,  it  is  no  longer 
what  it  was.  Of  its  great  cardinal  doctrines,  some  —  like 


4  INTRODUCTORY. 

trinity,  incarnation,  atonement,  depravity  —  have  been 
explained  till  they  have  scarcely  more  than  a  name  to 
live;  others  —  like  election,  predestination,  the  damna- 
tion of  the  nnbaptized,  the  endless  torment  of  the 
unbelieving  —  have  been,  in  their  dogmatic  sense,  repu- 
diated. Millions  still  profess  them,  but  millions  do  not; 
and  the  millions  who  do  not  are  the  most  intelligent 
portion  of  the  human  race. 

In  the  old  world  the  church  of  Rome  is  engaged  in 
a  struggle  for  existence,  and  is  losing.  In  Italy,  the 
government,  though  exceedingly  moderate  in  its  meas- 
ures, under  the  lead  of  a  king,  himself  a  Catholic,  and 
a  ministry  scarcely  aggressive  enough  to  meet  the 
wishes  of  the  people,  gains  steadily  on  the  papacy,  and 
pushes  reforms  in  the  papal  city  that  cause  the  ecclesi- 
astical powers  to  shudder.  In  Rome,  where  the  traces 
of  Protestantism  were  wiped  out  with  a  swift  hand,  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  has  proposed  holding  its  next 
meeting.  In  Germany,  the  battle  with  the  empire, 
under  the  lead  of  Bismarck,  goes  heavily  against  the 
Pope.  Catholic  Austria  modifies  her  school  laws  in 
the  interest  of  secular  education.  In  England,  Mr. 
Gladstone  has  succeeded  in  unearthing  and  exposing 
the  pretensions  of  the  church.  The  equivocations  of 
Archbishop  Manning  and  of  Monsignor  Capel  confess 
the  truth  of  the  charge  they  try  to  evade.  None  appear 
in  open  defence  of  the  position  which  the  ex-premier 
assails.  There  is  indignant  protest,  holy  horror,  honest 
denial;  but  of  manly  championship  there  is  none.  The 
discussion,  which  is  carried  on  mostly  by  Catholic  wri- 
ters, reveals  differences  of  opinion  that  may  easily  ripen 
into  dissension.  The  enormous  sale  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
pamphlet  shows  that  the  English  people  are  interested, 


INTRODUCTORY.  5 

but  there  is  no  evidence  that  they  are  afraid ;  and  the 
tone  of  the  press  foreshadows  with  terrible  decision  the 
attitude  Englishmen  would  take  if  Rome  should  ever 
interfere  as  a  dominion  with  the  organization  of  their 
political  or  social  life.  On  that  issue  Romanists  them- 
selves would  fatally  divide.  If  in  the  reign  of  Eliza- 
beth such  interference  was  resented  and  resisted,  in  the 
nineteenth  century  the  bare  suggestion  of  it  would  ex- 
cite only  derision. 

This  question  has  not  come  up  in  America,  and  prob- 
ably never  will ;  but  it  may.  Mr.  Gladstone  reminds 
us  that  "even  in  the  United  States,  where  the  sever- 
ance between  church  and  state  is  supposed  to  be  com- 
plete, a  long  catalogue  might  be  drawn  of  subjects 
belonging  to  the  domain  of  competency  of  the  state, 
but  also  undeniably  affecting  the  government  of  the 
church ;  such  as,  by  way  of  example,  marriage,  burial, 
education,  prison  discipline,  blasphemy,  poor  relief,  in- 
corporation, mortmain,  religious  endowments,  vows  of 
celibacy,  and  obedience."  More  than  once  we  have 
been  made  uneasy  by  the  possibilities  of  Catholic  med- 
dling with  our  public  affairs.  More  than  once  we  have 
suspected  officious  dabbling  and  intrigue  in  elections. 
It  is  notorious  that  the  Roman  Church  has  received 
large  endowments  from  the  state,  and  that  it  has 
obtained  them  through  political  influence.  That  this 
church  has  heretofore  kept  up  affiliations  with  existing 
forms  of  despotic  power  is  undeniable ;  that  these  affil- 
iations were  not  incidental  is  reasonably  believed  ;  that, 
from  the  nature  of  things,  spiritual  despotism  must  be 
in  league  with  political,  is  a  rational  persuasion ;  and, 
though  in  America  the  elements  of  political  despotism, 
instead  of  being  organized  as  in  Europe,  are  continually 


6  INTRODUCTORY. 

shifting  from  party  to  party,  and  undergoing  perpetual 
transformations,  still  they  exist,  and  maintain  their 
characteristic  features ;  which  are  ignorance,  prejudice, 
pride  of  race  and  class,  intolerance,  and  contempt,  —  in 
a  word,  inhumanity,  under  one  or  another  guise. 

The  decline  of  the  temporal  power  of  Rome  may  be 
assumed  as  an  event  accomplished  in  modern  history. 
But  it  is  not  generally  perceived  that  the  decline  of  the 
temporal  power  involves  the  decline  of  the  spiritual. 
The  religion  must  follow  the  fate  of  the  empire.  Rome 
sees  too  clearly  that  the  fair  vision  of  increased  and 
increasing  sway  over  souls  that  is  promised  as  the 
reward  for  laying  down  her  imperial  sceptre  is  baseless. 
By  a  strong  logic  she  was  impelled,  as  early  as  Con- 
stantino's day,  to  apply  her  principle  of  spiritual  au- 
thority to  all  matters  into  which  moral  considerations 
entered ;  and  perceiving,  as  every  intelligent  person 
must,  that  such  considerations  enter  into  all  concerns 
whatever,  public  and  private,  social  and  domestic,  judi- 
cial and  administrative,  she  asserted  her  paramount 
right  and  duty  to  interpose  in  the  regulation  of  the 
social  condition,  on  the  whole  and  in  all  its  parts.  The 
claim  of  spiritual  authority  is  idle  breath  without  this 
solid  burden  of  inference.  The  power  that  controls 
conscience  controls  society.  On  that  point  Archbishop 
Manning  is  in  full  accord  with  Mr.  Gladstone.  They 
differ  in  this :  that  whereas  Archbishop  Manning  be- 
lieves in  the  existence  of  a  visible  power  divinely  au- 
thorized to  control  conscience,  Mr.  Gladstone  does  not. 
But  if  the  power  to  control  conscience  implies  the 
power  to  control  society,  denial  of  the  power  to  con- 
trol society  involves  denial  of  the  power  to  control 
conscience.  Take  away  the  temporal  power,  and  you 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

take  away  the  very  throne  of  power.  You  reduce  the 
church  to  an  organ  of  teaching  and  of  influence  on 
individual  souls.  The  right  to  dictate  opinion,  to 
direct  principles,  to  impose  rules  on  conduct,  to  ful- 
minate edicts  against  misbehavior,  to  visit  moral  offences 
with  civil  or  social  penalties,  to  use  the  confessional 
for  other  than  strictly  sentimental  purposes,  is  taken 
away.  The  greater  part  of  her  machinery  falls  instantly 
into  disuse.  She  is  shut  up  within  the  limits  of  reason, 
imagination,  and  feeling,  where  other  forms  of  religion 
compete  with  her  with  more  or  less  of  success.  She 
would,  thus  limited,  be  less  than  the  shadow  of  what 
she  was. 

We  are  told  that  facts  do  not  bear  out  this  predic- 
tion ;  that,  on  the  contrary,  the  increase  of  the  Catholic 
religion  has  kept  pace  with  the  shrinkage  of  political 
power.  It  is  said  that  in  1765,  England  and  Scotland 
contained  but  60,000  Catholics;  in  1821  there  were 
500,000  ;  in  1842,  2,500,000 ;  in  1845,  3,380,000.  The 
Catholics  boast  of  600  conversions  a  year;  and  claimed 
in  1873,  1,893  priests,  1,453  churches  and  chapels,  86 
convents  of  men,  268  convents  of  women,  21  Catholic 
gymnasiums,  1,249  schools,  20  dioceses,  33  Catholic 
lords,  77  baronets,  6  members  of  the  Privy  Council, 
and  37  members  of  the  House  of  Commons.  But 
neither  figures  nor  facts  explain  themselves  :  there  are 
causes  behind  them  that  are  not  easily  interpreted  or 
analyzed.  It  certainly  would  be  rash  to  conclude  that 
these  facts  and  figures  report  a  genuine  spread,  to  such 
an  extent,  of  the  Catholic  faith.  The  essential  Roman- 
ism of  the  English  Church,  which  leads  the  most  severely 
consistent  of  its  members  directly  back  to  the  older 
communion,  accounts  in  considerable  degree  for  the 


8  INTRODUCTORY. 

success  of  the  Tractarian  movement.  The  passion  of 
the  wealthy,  idle,  and  aristocratic  class  for  pomp  and 
the  prestige  of  antiquity ;  the  proclivity  of  the  same 
class,  among  the  women  especially,  to  sentimentalism ; 
the  conservative  love  of  order;  the  dread  of  infidelity, 
and  the  social  revolution  associated  with  it ;  the  reac- 
tion against  scientific  rationalism,  —  are  circumstances 
that  will  explain  a  great  deal.  Add  to  all  this,  the 
singular  activity  of  the  Romish  priesthood,  their  devo- 
tion to  their  work,  the  intense  earnestness  apparent  in 
their  lives,  the  unwavering  character  of  their  beliefs, 
and  the  tone  of  authority  they  use,  and  the  increase 
of  Romanism  in  England  is  justified  without  supposing 
any  deep  spiritual  change  in  the  popular  heart.  Mr. 
Mill,  in  a  recently  published  essay,  dwells  forcibly  on 
the  power  of  mere  authority  to  carry  crowds  away ; 
but  the  crowds  so  transported  are  liable  to  be  swept 
back,  or  borne  in  a  different  direction,  by  the  first  strong 
wind  from  an  opposite  quarter. 

The  ingenious  Father  Burke  told  the  enthusiastic 
Irish  of  Cork  that  there  were  9,000,000  Catholics  in 
the  United  States,  at  a  low  estimate ;  while  at  the  time 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  they  counted  but 
25,000 ;  and  then  he  went  on,  with  true  Irish  fervor,  to 
state  the  details  of  this  amazing  spread.  The  number 
he  gives  is  probably  something  more  than  three  times 
the  actual  sum.  But,  supposing  it  were  correct,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  they  are  almost  wholly  composed  of 
the  different  branches  of  the  Celtic  race,  which  is 
Catholic  wherever  found ;  and  that  from  the  numbers 
of  that  race  in  America  must  be  deducted  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  who  have  simply  been  transferred  thither 
from  the  old  world,  chiefly  from  Ireland.  It  is  not  fair 


INTRODUCTORY.  9 

to  count  even  Catholics  more  than  once.  The  estab- 
lished habit  of  doing  so  at  the  polls  must  not  be  per- 
mitted to  disturb  the  axioms  of  arithmetic.  The 
Catholics  of  intellect  and  culture  — lawyers,  judges, 
men  of  letters,  physicians  —  are,  with  few  if  any  excep- 
tions, of  Irish  extraction,  —  Catholics  by  tradition  of 
race.  The  Spaniards  of  New  Mexico  are  Catholic,  of 
course ;  so  are  the  Italians ;  so,  in  a  less  proportion,  are 
the  French.  The  aristocratic  class,  or  a  portion  of  it;  the 
lovers  of  form  and  ceremony;  the  reverers  of  authority ; 
the  admirers  of  fixed  beliefs ;  the  sentimentalists ;  the 
alarmists;  the  doubters,  who  refuse  to  be  tormented ;  the 
believers,  who  refuse  to  be  disturbed ;  the  worldly,  who 
regard  religion  as  a  police  force  to  protect  respectabil- 
ity, and  therefore  advocate  the  strongest  church,  —  are 
Catholic  in  America  as  they  are  in  England.  But  such 
converts  ai'e  to  be  counted,  not  weighed.  Between  the 
indifference  of  the  educated  Catholics,  whose  faith  is  a 
sentiment  or  a  tradition,  and  the  stupidity  of  the  uned- 
ucated, whose  faith  is  a  remarkably  disreputable  super- 
stition, there  is  not  much  room  for  vital  belief.  The 
evidence  that  the  Catholic  religion  gains  ground  where 
it  is  least  implicated  in  the  concerns  of  the  state,  is 
very  slight  indeed. 

No  doubt,  the  Catholics  are  making  prodigious  efforts 
in  the  old  world  and  the  new.  The  old  Catholics  of 
Germany  are  trying  to  recover  lost  ground,  by  disen- 
gaging themselves  from  the  papacy.  The  new  Catho- 
lics of  America  are  trying  to  revive  the  ancient  system, 
by  disengaging  themselves  from  the  traditions  of  Eu- 
rope. But  it  is  probable  that  the  unity  of  the  church 
suffers  as  much  as  its  superficial  area  gains  by  these 
diversions.  Instead  of  one  church,  there  are  many : 


10  INTRODUCTORY. 

its  moral  integrity  destroyed,  its  power  disappears. 
Judged  by  its  spiritual  —  that  is,  by  its  intellectual  or 
rational  —  influence  alone,  we  are  not  warranted  in  con- 
ceding to  the  Catholic  religion  as  much  sway  as  the 
largest  single  sect  of  Protestantism  exerts. 

The  weakness  of  Protestantism,  so  openly  and  plain- 
tively confessed  at  the  recent  sessions  of  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  in  New  York,  is  attested  by  numerous  signs. 
In  England,  there  is  lamentation  over  the  falling  oft'  in 
the  number  of  missionaries,  —  a  lamentation  rendered 
more  agonizing  by  the  admission  that  in  quality,  as  well 
as  in  quantity,  the  new  recruits  are  inferior  to  their 
predecessors.  The  Episcopal  Church  there  is  disturbed 
by  controversies  that  increase  in  bitterness,  and  show 
results  in  secession.  The  debates  on  the  subject  of 
ritualism,  at  the  late  conference  in  New  York,  disclosed 
an  unsuspected  gulf  of  separation.  The  departure  of 
Dr.  Cummins  with  a  large  following  is  ominous  of 
dissolution  in  that  communion. 

He  that  would  study  the  fate  of  Protestantism  has 
but  to  ponder  the  history  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance. 
The  very  existence  of  an  organization,  avowedly  formed 
with  the  object  of  beating  back  menacing  and  danger- 
ous foes,  —  Romanism  on  the  one  hand,  and  Rational- 
ism on  the  other,  —  is  an  indication  of  acknowledged 

'  O 

infirmity.  The  difficulties  experienced  in  forming  the 
league,  the  concessions  that  had  to  be  made,  the  luke- 
warmness  that  had  to  be  surmounted,  the  appeals  that 
had  to  be  issued,  betrayed  the  extent  to  which  secta- 
rian divisions,  dogmatic  prejudices,  party  jealousies, 
had  demoralized  the  churches  and  disintegrated  the 
faith.  The  disproportion  of  the  result  to  the  plan  — 
three  or  four  sects  only  entering  into  the  conspiracy, 


INTRODUCTORY.  11 

and  they  held  with  great  labor  to  their  allegiance  —  was 
a  confession  of  weakness  it  is  surprising  that  far-sighted 
men  should  have  made. 

The  Christian  unions  which  put  on  so  brave  a  look, 
and  call  attention  so  vauntingly  to  their  breadth  and 
earnestness  of  spirit,  their  willingness  to  sacrifice  inci- 
dentals to  essentials,  and  the  deepening  of  their 
Christian  faith,  are  rendered  necessary  by  the  pressure 
of  rationalism.  The  sects  draw  together  for  mutual 
support,  surrendering  outworks  of  belief  they  can  no 
longer  hold,  and  consenting  in  the  occupation  of  the 
last  trench.  They  admit  as  many  as  they  can,  that  they 
may  present  a  good  front  to  the  besieging  foe.  The 
liberalizing  of  creeds,  the  allowance  of  different  inter- 
pretations of  book  and  article,  the  relaxing  of  defini- 
tions, are  suggestive  of  decaying  bonds.  Great  boast 
was  made  of  the  expanded  temper  of  the  orthodox 
churches,  because  Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody  gave  a  course  of 
lectures  in  a  Presbyterian  Church  on  the  Christian 
Evidences.  The  enlargement  was  not  remarkable  ;  for 
the  lectures  might  have  been  delivered  fifty  yea,rs  ago 
in  any  place  less  liberal  than  a  Jewish  temple,  and,  if 
read  by  a  Baptist  or  a  Romanist,  would  have  excited 
no  comment.  But  the  willingness  to  listen  to  a  so- 
called  Unitarian  really  proved  no  more  than  the  readi- 
ness of  orthodoxy  to  reckon  on  all  the  forces  it  could 
call  in.  On  the  other  hand,  the  huddling  of  the  Uni- 
tarians of  Saratoga  behind  the  old  defences  showed 
the  fear  lest  longer  exposure  in  the  open  field  might  be 
fatal  to  existence.  When  vitality  retreats  from  the 
extremities,  dissolution  is  commonly  supposed  to  be 
near.  When  the  garrison  retreats  to  the  citadel,  ulti- 
mate surrender  is  predicted. 


12  INTRODUCTORY. 

To  say  that  the  modifications  in  the  statements  of 
Christian  theology  are  merely  adjustments  of  the  faith 
to  the  devout  intelligence  of  modern  times,  is  to  con- 
cede the  whole  case.  The  devout  intelligence  of  mod- 
ern times  does  demand  precisely  this,  —  the  indefinite 
modification  of  the  Christian  theology;  and  it  will 
press  the  demand  till  every  vestige  of  the  theology  is 
swept  away,  and  reason  is  alone  and  supreme  in  the 
domain  of  truth.  Enthusiastic  believers  inside  of 
Christendom  rejoice  to  see  their  religion  overpassing 
its  ancient  close  boundaries,  and  cordially  meeting  the 
human  mind  on  its  own  ground.  But,  to  the  cool 
observer  outside  of  Christendom,  it  looks  rather  as  if 
the  human  mind  had  overpassed  the  boundaries  fixed 
by  church  authority,  and  was  driving  the  religion  back. 
Christianity  is  at  bay  within  Christendom.  The  "  Chris- 
tian world"  contains  more  non-Christians  and  anti- 
Christians  than  Christians,  more  unbelievers  than 
believers,  more  unworshipful  than  worshipful,  more 
lukewarm  than  ardent,  more  irreverent  people  than 
reverent.  The  naturalists  outnumber  the  supernatural- 
ists.  The  rationalists  carry  more  weight  than  the  fide- 
ists.  This  is  so,  at  all  events,  in  the  centres  of  thought; 
and  the  centres  of  thought  are  the  fountains  of  thought. 
The  live  mind  of  the  world  —  meaning  by  live  mind 
inquiring  mind  —  is  deserting  Christianity  for  philos- 
ophy, science,  and  literature. 

But  a  more  decisive  indication  of  the  decline  of  the 
Christian  system  as  interpreted  by  Protestants  of  all 
degrees,  from  Lutheran  to  Universal  1st  and  Unita- 
rian, is  the  all  but  complete  divorce  of  the  system 
from  popular  life.  Its  influence  on  the  practical  con- 
cerns of  men  is  scarcely  perceptible.  The  politician 


INTRODUCTORY.  13 

sets  up  rules  and  standards  of  his  own ;  the  lawyer 
obeys  the  precedents  of  his  profession ;  the  merchant 
complies  with  the  regulations  of  trade;  the  financier 
consults'  the  principles  of  social  economy ;  ladies  and 
gentlemen  conform  to  the  precepts  of  fashionable  eti- 
quette ;  men  and  women  of  the  world  follow,  without 
hesitation,  the  maxims  of  the  community  they  live  in. 
Human  existence,  in  all  its  departments,  goes  on  un- 
conscious of  the  presence  of  a  law  that  rebukes  its 
whole  spirit  and  practice.  This  point  has  been  keenly 
touched  in  a  little  book  entitled  "Modern  Christianity 
a  Civilized  Heathenism,"  by  the  piquant  author  of  the 
"  Fight  in  Dame  Europa's  School."  The  argument,  as 
he  puts  it,  is  conclusive  against  the  vitality  of  the 
Christian  system ;  but  he  might  have  pressed  it  further 
without  exaggeration,  and  shown  an  equal  incompati- 
bility between  modern  life  and  the  faith  and  ethics  of 
the  New  Testament.  The  teachings  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  are  as  irreconcilable  with  the  cardinal 
principles  on  which  modern  society  is  based  as  are  the 
implications  contained  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  or 
any  other  Christian  confession.  Society  drives  neither 
coach  nor  cart  over  that  road. 

If  Christian  professors  and  divines  exhibited  in  their 
own  daily  habits  the  power  of  the  faith  they  contend 
for,  so  that  the  Christian  life  confronted  the  world  with 
a  majesty  undaunted  by  insult,  and  a  sweetness  un- 
ruffled by  neglect,  the  assertions  just  made  would  be 
deprived  of  their  pertinency:  for  then  a  prospect  of 
ultimate  victory  might  be  entertained  by  the  men  of 
faith.  But  this  hope  is  not  granted.  Christian  be- 
lievers make  strenuous  efforts  to  defend  and  spread 
abroad  their  faith  j  the  spirit  of  consecration  is  active  j 


14  .  INTRODUCTORY. 

the  number  of  earnest,  devoted  men  and  women  in 
the  various  communions  is  very  large;  examples  of 
heroism  and  saintliness,  of  the  pure  Christian  type,  are 
presented  by  refined  people  in  the  heart  of  worldly 
cities :  but  they  are  not  sufficient  to  create  or  keep 
alive  a  body  of  opinion ;  they  are  exceptions  to  the 
rule,  even  among  gospel  people;  indeed,  they  are,  by 
all  admission,  very  rare.  Their  separate  brilliancy 
only  serves  to  reveal  the  density  of  the  surrounding 
darkness.  They  confirm  the  condition  of  things  which 
they  deplore :  they  convict  the  age  of  a  stubborn,  deep- 
seated,  ineradicable  fidelity  to  the  law  of  reason,  so  far 
as  revealed. 

The  chaotic  state  of  opinion  on  religious  questions  is 
simply  the  result  of  the  general  breaking  up  of  the 
Christian  system.  Intelligence,  being  thrown  upon  its 
own  resources  to  find  a  path  over  heaps  of  ruin,  looks 
in  every  direction  for  an  issue  out  from  the  falling  city. 
Spiritualism,  materialism,  atheism,  positivism,  senti- 
mentalism  of  every  mode,  fanaticism  of  every  phase, 
mark  the  efforts  that  are  making  to  overleap,  burrow 
under,  dig  through,  blast  away  the  piles  of  ignorance, 
dogma,  tradition,  that  cumber  the  ground.  They  are 
efforts  of  the  human  mind  to  come  to  an  understanding 
with  things  as  they  are. 

The  faith  that  such  an  understanding  can  be  reached 
gains  in  force  every  day.  The  destructive  period  has 
about  passed  by ;  the  constructive  period  has  begun. 
In  science,  the  greatest  men  are  distinguishing  them- 
selves by  positive  generalizations.  In  philosophy,  the 
lines  are  converging  towards  certain  central  principles. 
The  outlook  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  system  is  pre- 
figured in  John  Fiske's  "  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philos- 


INTRODUCTORY.  15 

ophy,"  —  a  remarkable  book,  which,  if  it  establishes 
nothing,  indicates  some  of  the  highways  that  the  future 
intelligence  will  tread".  Lewes's  "Problems  of  Life  and 
Mind,"  and  Strauss's  "  Old  Faith  and  New,"  are  contri- 
butions to  the  structure  that  is  rising  on  the  ruins  of 
the  old  creed. 

To  those  interested  particularly  in  religious  spec- 
ulation, cheer  comes  from  Owen,  Miiller,  Lubbock, 
Rawlinson,  Legge,  Muir,  Elliot,  Tyler,  Ellis,  New- 
ton, Oppert,  Dillman,  Weber,  and  the  noble  fra- 
ternity of  scholars  who  are  showing  the  identities 
and  sounding  the  unisons  of  faith  in  all  ages  of 
mankind,  and  are  laying  the  foundations  of  a  religion 
inclusive  of  all  special  faiths,  and  more  intellectual, 
more  spiritual,  more  uplifting  and  commanding  than 
any  one.  The  beautiful  idea  of  the  sympathy  of  reli- 
gions has  already  become  familiar,  and  not  to  "  rational " 
thinkers  alone.  No  less  eminent  a  person  than  Arthur 
Penrhyn  Stanley,  within  the  solemn  walls  of  West- 
minster Abbey,  has  countenanced  the  noble  conception, 
not  in  so  many  words,  but  in  sentences  of  grave  ad- 
monition to  Christians,  and  honorable  recognition  of 
the  merits  of  those  whom  Christians  go  forth  to  con- 
vert. Up  to  this  time,  outside  of  Christianity  the 
intellect  has  had  the  field  of  religious  inquiry  mainly 
to  itself;  as  was  fitting,  seeing  that  the  need  of  criti- 
cism was  the  most  imperative.  For  a  long  time  yet, 
the  relentless  armor  must  be  worn,  and  the  pitiless 
weapon  kept  sharp  and  bare  ;  but  sentiment  and  imag- 
ination, recovering  from  the  shock  occasioned  by  the 
fall  of  their  old  idols,  are  rallying  courage  to  do  their 
part  in  peopling  the  new  heavens  with  worshipful  ideals, 
and  clothing  in  robes  of  glory  the  august  forms  which 


16  INTRODUCTORY. 

the  seraphs  at  the  gate  of  knowledge  allow  passage  to 
the  upper  skies. 

This  volume  of  essays,  printed  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Free  Religious  Association,  written  by  different 
minds,  in  different  moods,  for  different  occasions,  work- 
ing without  the  least  refei'ence  to  one  another,  and 
associated  here  by  no  other  bond  than  that  of  a  com- 
mon feeling  of  intellectual  need,  a  common  persuasion 
of  their  personal  responsibility  to  meet  it  as  they  can, 
and  a  united  conviction  that  sooner  or  later  it  will  be 
met  adequately  and  triumphantly,  —  is  thrown  out  as 
their  contribution  towards  the  religion  of  the  future. 

O.  B.  F. 


FREEDOM    AND     FELLOWSHIP    IN 
RELIGION. 


THE  NATURE   OF  RELIGION. 
BY  DAVID  A.  WASSON. 

TN  the  productive  order  of  nature,  nothing  is 
•*-  sudden,  there  is  no  break  of  continuity ;  be- 
tween lower  and  higher  runs  ever  a  thread  of 
relation.  Hence  the  principles  that  flower  in  the 
consciousness  of  humanity  are  not  absolutely  new  ; 
already,  before  the  advent  of  man,  Nature  has  had 
them  in  use,  and  wrought  them  into  the  structure 
of  the  world.  Religion,  accordingly,  though  as  a 
conscious  principle  it  is  peculiar  to  man,  has  already 
a  clear  anticipation  in  the  forms  of  life  that  lie  below 
him.  To  find  it  in  that  depth  of  relation  will 
assist  toward  an  understanding  of  its  nature ;  this, 
therefore,  \vill  be  first  attempted. 

The  growth  of  a  plant  may  be  regarded  in  three 
several  aspects.  In  the  lowest  and  most  limited 
view,  it  consists  in  the  formation  of  minute  organic 
cells.  From  one  tiny  cell  another  proceeds  ;  from 
these,  others ;  and  the  result  is,  now  a  grass-blade, 
and  now  a  California  cedar.  Cell-formation,  an  ex- 

2 


18  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

ceedingly  small  process,  always  and  everywhere  the 
same,  is  that  which  clothes  the  fields,  builds  the 
forests,  makes  the  earth  green.  Such  is  the  atomis- 
tic view  of  vegetable  growth,  —  taking  atomistic,  of 
course,  in  an  approximate,  not  the  strict,  sense. 
It  is  not,  however,  the  less  true,  nor  should  be  the 
less  interesting,  for  being  such.  Smallest  and  great- 
est  are  wedded  in  nature  ;  and  a  well-balanced  mind 
will  be  as  little  disposed  to  overlook  the  one  as  to 
undertook  the  other. 

This  view,  nevertheless,  is  no  complete  one.  Be- 
sides this  small  process,  and  above  it,  there  is  a 
structural  idea, —  an  immanent,  artistic  genius,  one 
might  almost  call  it,  —  which  assures  to  every 
plant  an  entire  characteristic  form.  I  remember 
walking,  many  years  since,  over  a  hill  in  Maine, 
and  seeing  the  first  buttercup  of  the  season  ;  and 
the  question  rushed  upon  my  mind,  What,  then, 
builds  that  ?  I  stood  astonished  to  the  heart  before 
an  object  so  familiar,  looking  down  through  it  in- 
to the  great  deeps  of  natural  mystery ;  and  the 
accompanying  thought,  new  then,  but  never  after- 
wards to  be  overcome,  was:  The  miracle  is  natural 
order,  not  its  interruption.  But  what  builds  that  ? 
who  can  answer  '?  This  alone  we  know  :  the  idea 
of  the  plant,  as  an  individual  whole,  is  there  from 
the  first  to  make  it  a  whole.  A  mass  of  clay  is 
formed  by  the  mere  putting  together  of  parts ;  a 
pine  is  likewise  formed  by  the  addition  of  cell  to 
cell;  but  in  this  case  there  is  something  more: 
the  whole  is  there  from  the  outset,  —  only  ideally, 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  19 

if  you  will,  but  effectively  one  sees,  —  to  preside 
over  that  process,  conduct  it ;  and,  were  it  not 
there,  no  such  process  could  take  place.  The  tree 
is  —  in  a  low  sense  indeed,  but  a  real  one  —  an 
individual ;  were  it  conscious  of  that  individual 
unity,  it  would  be  also  a  person  ;  and  the  notion  of 
individuality  is  this:  an  ideal  unity  of  parts  and 
members  ;  an  ideal  whole,  which  presides  over,  and 
remains  identical  with,  its  own  realization. 

Again,  every  plant  stands  in  a  system  of  uni- 
versal relations,  strictly  necessary  to  its  existence. 
That  one  grass-blade  may  grow,  there  is  needed 
at  least  a  whole  sun  and  whole  earth :  a  sun 
capable  of  shining  with  a  given  power,  and  of 
holding  the  planet  in  its  orbit  by  a  given  force  of 
attraction,  therefore  having  the  constitution  and 
dimension  of  that  one  which  actually  rules  in  the 
heavens ;  an  earth  holding  a  spheric  ocean  of  fire 
in  its  bosom,  with  a  solid  crust  formed  from  this 
and  floating  upon  it,  with  a  certain  chemic  force 
of  its  elements,  with  water  and  evaporation,  and 
seas  to  supply  evaporation,  and  the  flowing  air  and 
vapors  to  temper  it.  —  in  short,  that  one  blade  of 
grass  may  grow,  this  sun  and  this  earth  are  required, 
with  all  their  physical  history,  and  all  that  system 
of  relations  which  their  existence  implies.  The 
plant,  therefore,  has  not  merely  its  physical  roots, 
ramifying  through  some  few  inches  or  feet  of  soil, 
but  also  its  unseen  roots  of  vital  relation  ;  and 
these  extend  through  what  a  space  in  the  present, 
through  what  a  depth  in  the  past ! 


20  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

The  husbandman  that  awaits  the  coming  of  the 
vernal  sun,  then  casts  the  seed  into  the  earth, 
making  it  over,  in  the  hope  of  harvest,  to  the  care 
of  its  cosmic  relations,  might  well  find  matter  for 
thought  in  his  simple,  customary  act.  The  act 
says  that  the  universe  is  a  party  to  all  vital  formation 
within  it ;  and  that  activity,  power,  function,  proceed 
from  the  great  whole  to  each  particular  existence. 
Does  not  that  already  suggest  a  religion  ?  If  the 
tree  were  conscious,  it  would  be  a  sun-worshipper 
surely  I  With  consciousness  of  vital  relation  on 
that  scale,  must  come  some  response  of  feeling  to 
it ;  and  that  response,  —  were  it  not  a  worship  ? 

Well,  a  conscious  being  is  indeed  here,  and 
with  relations  out  of  measure  higher  and  finer.  To 
him,  accordingly,  we  turn. 

On  the  lowest  scale,  man  is  not  conscious. 
Interior  physiological  process  —  which,  though  in 
him  it  includes  more  than  mere  cell-formation,  may 
be  taken  here  as  represented  by  it  —  goes  on  without 
immediate  report  to  the  mind.  One  has  no  direct 
knowledge  of  his  own  anatomy  ;  of  the  blood's 
circulation  ;  of  the  formation  and  elimination  of 
tissue  ;  of  the  functions  assumed  by  the  stomach, 
liver,  brain,  and  so  forth.  Concerning  all  tin's  one 
must  learn  by  observation  as  of  external  objects. 
So  far  man  is  indeed  to  himself  an  external  object. 

It  is  at  the  second  degree  of  the  scale  that 
human  consciousness  appears.  The  tree  is  an 
individual  whole,  and  knows  it  not ;  man  is  such, 
and  does  know  it.  The  ideal  unity,  which  in  the 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  21 

lower  organism  remains  dark,  silent,  becomes  lu- 
minous in  the  higher,  becomes  vocal,  and  says  /. 
This  consciousness  —  to  the  unthinking  not  won- 
derful at  all,  to  the  thoughtful  just  infinitely 
wonderful  —  is  the  root  of  personality  ;  and  there 
are  two  questions  about  it  to  ask,  two  facts  about 
it  to  determine,  if  possible,  here. 

First,  What  is  that  which  says  I?  The  answer 
to  this  question  will  be  found  through  another : 
What  is  there  to  say  it?  Something  recognizes, 
enunciates  itself  as  pure  and  constant  identity.  If 
we  find  somewhat  which  could  so  speak  of  itself, 
and  speak  truly,  it  may  be  regarded  as  clear  .that 
this  is  indeed  the  speaker.  Well,  we  have  already 
found  it,  even  in  the  plant.  The  tree,  it  was  said, 
has  individuality  of  a  low  order,  but  unmistakable. 
Now,  individual  means  "  what  cannot  be  divided," 
indivisible  unity  ;  and  the  characteristic  unity  even 
of  a  tree  is,  indeed,  indivisible.  The  body,  the 
matter  of  it,  may  be  hewn  in  pieces :  but  hand  a 
bare  chip  from  it  to  the  woodman,  he  will  at  once 
name  the  whole  tree,  oak,  larch,  pine,  cedar,  birch, 
maple,  as  the  case  may  be ;  and  in  doing  so  will 
name  an  assemblage  of  characters  that  are  simply 
inseparable,  —  one  there,  all  there.  It  is  an  ideal 
unity  always  whole,  whole  in  the  seed  as  in  the  tree  ; 
and,  though  its  physical  realization  is  to  tower  a 
hundred  feet,  amply  accommodated,  it  may  be,  in 
a  seed  no  bigger  than  a  pin's  head.  Now,  if  that 
ideal  unity  should,  in  the  tree  or  in  a  higher 
creature,  voice  itself  as  such,  it  would  clearly  speak 


22  '    FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

truth.  The  fact  is  there,  even  in  a  plant ;  and  it 
is  here,  a  hundred-fold  more  emphatic,  in  man,  and 
it  may  justly  call  itself  what  it  really  is.  I  know 
of  nothing  else  in  man  which  could  say,  "I  am 
oneness,  and  always  the  same  oneness,"  and  not 
speak  falsely.  Self-consciousness  is,  therefore,  ideal 
unity  recognizing  and  enunciating  itself.  The  fact 
affirmed  is  older  than  man,  —  old  as  organic  being  on 
this  globe  ;  there  is,  there  could  be,  no  vital  forma- 
tion without  it ;  but  in  man  alone  does  it  become 
to  itself  known,  and  find  a  voice. 

Secondly,  Can  consciousness  be,  with  any  show 
of  propriety,  described  as  a  material  manifestation, 
or  must  we  define  it  as  a  spiritual  fact  ?  What  is 
matter,  and  what  is  spirit  ?  Matter  is  all  that  we 
see,  hear,  touch,  taste,  or  smell ;  and  all  effects  of 
which  we  learn  by  the  senses  are  physical  effects. 
That  is  the  widest  possible  definition  of  matter  and 
material  effects.  No  materialist  Avill  desire  one 
more  liberal,  since  the  materialist  assigns  the  same 
limit  to  all  knowledge  whatsoever.  Now,  con- 
sciousness can  neither  be  seen,  heard,  touched, 
tasted,  nor  smelled.  It  escapes  the  senses  utterly. 
When,  therefore,  one  describes  it  as  a  material 
manifestation,  he  speaks  neither  from  understanding 
nor  to  it.  It  is  as  when  one  declares  that  he 
believes  in  contradictories  ;  the  statement  is  one  to 
which  no  mental  conception  does,  or  can,  correspond. 
We  should  say  that  one  spoke  absurdly,  should  he 
call  a  horse  a  bald  eagle.  Yet  the  eagle,  like  the 
horse,  has  body,  weight,  feet,  eyes ;  the  blood 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  23 

circulates,  the  formation  and  deformation  of  tissues 
go  on,  in  both  ;  they  have  really  much  in  common. 
But  when  that  is  called  a  material  manifestation, 
which  to  the  ^senses  does  not  exist,  the  words  mean 
simply  and  absolutely  nothing  intelligible.  We 
see  light,  hear  sound,  feel  gravitation  and  electricity, 
observe  physical  laws  in  their  outward  effects ; 
but  personal  consciousness  is  that  which,  never  to 
be  reached,  never  approached,  on  this  road,  reveals 
itself  to  itself.  That  which  does  so,  I  define  as 
spiritual.  If  any  one  thinks  the  word  a  bad  one, 
let  him  find  a  better.  But  let  him  not  fall  into 
sheer  unintelligibility,  by  saying  material  where  no 
mental  conception  does  or  can  accompany  the 
term. 

But,  further  :  it  has  been  seen  that  the  vegetable 
organism  has,  besides  its  individual  wholeness, 
which  in  man  becomes  conscious  of  itself,  also  its 
system  of  inter-relation  with  the  great  whole  of 
nature  ;  and  in  this  fact  a  religious  suggestion  has 
been  recognized.  Man  has,  of  course,  the  like, 
but  incomparably  higher  and  finer ;  and  he  has  it 
with  consciousness.  .  By  that  relation,  and  in  it,  he 
lives,  moves,  and  has  his  being  :  it  gives  him  a 
body,  and  affords  to  it  nourishment ;  it  makes  him 
a  thinking  mind,  and  furnishes  this  with  matter  of 
thought ;  it  endows  him  with  a  moral  soul,  and 
supplies  this  with  a  field  of  action.  His  debt  to  it, 
in  short,  equals  the  entire  worth  of  his  being,  be 
that  more  or  less.  One's  life  is  not  in  himself 
alone.  In  himself  alone  !  —  what  paltrier  conceit 


24  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

could  a  human  head  ever  harbor?  Humanity, 
therefore,  even  in  awakening  to  itself,  awakens 
also,  and  with  awful  emotion,  to  a  sense  of  that 
supreme  relation ;  and  with  some  greatest  word, 
Jehovah,  Brahma,  God,  or  whatever  else,  with 
hymns  also  and  invocations,  and  with  that  manifold 
gesture,  faintly  signifying  the  unspeakable,  of 
primitive  worship,  it  responds  to  that  illimitable 
whole  by  which  it  feels  itself  creatively  and  sus- 
tainingly  embraced.  "  I  am  a  son  of  the  universe," 
the  primitive  man  would  say,  and  speaks  really  but 
a  little  toward  the  fact,  in  a  symbolical,  faintly 
approximative  way,  that  to  another  age  may  seem 
quite  too  ineffectual,  or  even  seem  an  idolatry. 
Speak,  think,  the  great  fact  completely,  no  man 
ever  did  or  will;  but  recognize  it  with  feeling, 
every  one  may. 

Religion,  then,  in  its  broadest,  simplest  definition, 
is  the  consciousness  of  universal  relation.  A  sense 
of  subordination,  "  sense  of  dependence,"  goes  with 
it,  in  which  Schleiermacher  and  others  would  see  its 
first  principle  and  nature.  Other  accompaniments 
vary  from  man  to  man,  or  from  one  stage  to  an- 
other of  human  culture.  Here  it  is  attended  by 
abject  fear,  there  by  ennobling  awe  ;  now  by  that 
superstition  of  self-interest  which  Coleridge  wittily 
described  as  "  other-worldliness,"  again  by  heroic 
loyalty  and  an  inspiration  to  act  in  the  spirit  of 
that  large  reception.  The  principle  generates  ever 
its  worship  of  one  sort  or  another ;  but  the  sorts 
vary  extremely,  from  mere  howling  exuberance,  as 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  25 

of  animalism  fermented,  to  sentiments  that  sur- 
pass every  symbol,  every  word,  and  shrine  them- 
selves in  a  hidden  place  of  truth  and  duty.  As 
lust  is  the  villain-relative  of  love,  so  there  is  a  lust 
of  religion,  bred  backward,  so  to  speak,  from  its 
principle.  But  for  this  the  principle  is  not  respon- 
sible, as  pure  love  is  not  for  its  graceless  kinsman. 
What  were  the  response  of  a  healthy  soul  to  the 
fact  signified,  one  sees. 

The  definition  here  given  will  not,  at  first  sight, 
satisfy  all,  even  of  those  whose  mental  conditions 
are  such  as  one  would  wish  to  satisfy.  It  is 
religion,  some  will  say,  with  God  left  out.  But  is 
that  indeed  the  case  ?  If  God  can  be  left  out  of  a 
system  of  universal  relation,  —  such  relation,  too, 
as  inducts  and  sustains  the  being  of  man,  —  what 
place  for  theism  more  ?  The  ground  is  surrendered. 
It  seems  not  advisable  to  make  such  an  admission 
hastily.  Nevertheless  it  is  clear  that  not  enough 
has  been  said,  and  we  proceed  to  determinations 
more  definite. 

And  first,  this :  the  universe  is  one,  and  there  is 
but  one  universe  :  it  is  a  system,  not  a  jumble,  and 
it  is  the  all-embracing  system.  There  is  nothing 
outside  it,  it  has  no  outside  :  and  there  is  no 
absolute  cleft,  no  final  discordance,  within  it ;  for,  if 
so,  it  were  no  unitive  system.  To  sustain  this 
statement,  in  a  mere  rapid  sketch  like  the  present, 
by  any  extended  deduction,  is,  of  course,  impossible ; 
nor  is  it,  perhaps,  at  all  necessary.  A  divided, 
discordant  universe  were  simply  no  universe,  and 


26  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

were  self-destructive  ;  it  is  inconceivable.  Nor 
is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  imagination  of  two  or 
several  universes,  standing  quite  out  of  relation 
with  each  other,  and  liable,  or,  in  the  measureless 
course  of  time,  certain,  to  come  into  collision,  with 
mutual  wreck,  will  be  entertained  by  any  sane 
mind.  This  universe  is  therefore  one  ;  the  absolute 
universal  is  absolute  unity ;  and  in  this  unity  it 
comprehends  all.  There  can  be,  then,  in  the  most 
extended  view,  no  relation  with  a  part  of  the 
universe  and  not  with  the  whole.  As  every 
needle  on  the  pine,  every  cell  within  it,  is  related 
to  the  whole  structure,  so  here  relation  is  with 
the  universe  as  one  and  whole. 

.Now,  this  matter  of  a  comprehending  unity  is  of 
peculiar  interest  to  man ;  touching  in  him,  I  know 
not  what  central,  sympathetic  chord.  Perhaps  the 
secret  of  its  suggestiveness  and  charm  is  that  he  is 
such  himself :  the  aspect  of  it  represents  to  him 
the  identity  of  consciousness  in  the  manifoldness 
of  experience.  That  unity  of  the  manifold  is 
harmony  in  music  ;  it  is  indispensable  to  delight  in 
any  work  of  art ;  it  begets  admiration  in  the  study 
of  vital  organisms,  with  their  numerous  parts  and 
processes  consenting  to  a  common  end  ;  and  it  is  at 
the  root  of  that  interest  with  which  every  man  con- 
templates a  complex,  perfect  mechanism.  Hence, 
every  fresh  discovery  of  this  in  nature  is  like  new 
blood  in  the  veins.  What  an  impulse  did  Newton's 
great  discovery  give  to  the  modern  world !  It 
brought  out  the  unity  of  near  and  far,  —  of  laws 


NATURE  OF  EELIGION.  27 

familiar  to  us  as  our  hats  or  hands,  with  the  laws 
by  which  worlds  move  in  their  orbits.  So  when 
Goethe  saw,  as  none  had  seen  before,  into  the 
unity  of  vegetable  structure,  and  announced  it  in 
his  "  Metamorphosis  of  Plants,"  the  fact  was  as  a 
melody  to  the  mind,  fitly  told  in  verse.  This  it 
is  that  draws  the  scientist,  as  he  traces  the  great 
roadways  of  law  through  the  world.  Arid  what 
a  magnet  it  is !  To  what  patience  of  pursuit,  to 
what  silent,  unseen  fidelity  of  labor,  does  it  inspire  ! 
Is  there  in  our  time  any  class  of  men  who  do  more 
from  a  pure,  unworldly  interest  than  the  men  of 
science  ?  See,  too,  to  what  they  condescend.  No 
mother  or  maid  in  the  nursery  accepts  more  of  what 
were  drudgery  and  disgusting  service,  but  for  the 
lofty  interest  that  consecrates  it,  than  the  naturalist ; 
and,  like  the  mother,  he  has  no  sense  of  condescend- 
ing. The  great  fact  he  seeks  is  great  enough  to 
dignify  all  it  inhabits.  Let  him  but  find  that, 
were  it  in  a  frog's  foot,  in  the  interiors  of  turtles 
and  clams,  in  snakes,  spiders,  or  mud-worms,  and 
he  feels  himself  looking  upward.  He  is,  indeed, 
looking  upward.  Cosmic  unity,  law  that  expresses 
it,  —  you  touch  there  a  string  that  vibrates  melo- 
diously, sweet  and  awful,  through  all  worlds.  Phys- 
ical science  has  indeed  its  customary  limitations,  — 
has,  as  I  think,  its  blind  e}7e,  —  and  looks  for  the 
whole  truth  there  where  the  ivhole  truth  is  not ;  but 
it  has  the  merit  of  believing  with  understanding, 
which  is  no  small  one ;  and,  moreover,  by  the  fact 
it  pursues,  by  the  object  of  its  devotion,  it  is  in 


28  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

unison  with  the  principle  of  religion.  Unity  in  the 
great  whole  ;  religion  says  that,  and  science  sees 
it  —  part  way !  Half  a  loaf,  however,  is  better 
than  no  bread  and  may  be  better  than  an  entire 
loaf,  if  the  former  is  white  flour,  while  the  latter 
is  much  mixed  with  bran,  bitter  seeds,  and  earth, 
—  as  the  whole  loaf  of  traditional  religion  unhap- 
pily is. 

The  universe  is  one  :  Of  what  grade  is  that 
unity  ?  To  point  the  question :  Is  the  great  whole, 
as  a  whole,  mechanical  only  ?  Is  it  dead  or  living, 
a  machine  or  a  self-active  organism  ? 

The  strong  tendency  of  our  time  is  toward  a 
material  and  mechanical  conception  of  the  cosmic 
whole.  On  the  contrary,  however,  it  seems  not 
overbold  to  say  that  the  universe  is,  must  be,  a 
self-active  organism.  A  machine  requires  external 
propulsion.  It  can  propagate  force,  not  produce 
it.  That  is  the  iron  limit  of  all  mechanics.  Speak 
that  word,  and  spontaneous  activity  is  excluded. 
What,  now,  is  external  to  the  universe,  which 
should  propel  it?  What  assumes  for  it  the  part 
of  the  boy  at  the  crank  of  a  grindstone,  or  of  the 
falling  water  which  drives  a  mill-wheel  ?  The 
notion  is  self-contradictory.  If  such  be  at  all  the 
posture  of  arfairs,  there  is  no  universe  ;  unity  is 
destroyed,  absolute  dualism  confessed,  and  the  very 
spinal  cord,  not  only  of  religion  but  of  reason  as 
well,  is  broken.  When  it  is  asked,  indeed,  What 
is  outside  and  at  the  crank  ?  the  old  theologians  an- 
swer readily, "  God  is  the  motor."  But  the  Paley- 


NATURE    OF  RELIGION.  29 

notion  of  a  God  appended  to  the  universe-machine, 
and  only  now  and  then  breaking  in,  by  way  of 
miracle,  to  do  a  little  on  his  own  special  account, 
is  one  that  may  here  be  regarded  as  obsolete.  It 
served  in  its  day  as  an  approximate  expression  of 
religious  feeling  ;  but  it  gradually  ceases  to  serve 
even  that  purpose,  while,  as  a  mode  of  dualism  and 
clearly  recognized  as  such,  it  is  to  thought  only  an 
affliction.  Meantime,  the  mechanical  philosophers, 
religious  in  their  way,  cling  —  or  would  cling  —  to 
the  clew  of  unity,  and  admit  no  such  deus  ex 
machina.  What,  then  ?  An  outside  propulsion 
cannot  be  admitted  ;  no  machine  propels  itself ; 
whatever  does  so,  is  by  the  fact  taken  out  of  the 
category  of  mechanical  structures  ;  and  yet  the 
world  moves.  It  is  therefore  self-active.  Can 
the  conclusion  be  avoided?  But,  with  this  at- 
tained, much  is  left  behind,  if  much  yet  lie  before. 

A  living  universe,  therefore,  not  a  dead  one. 
But,  again,  of  what  grade  ?  Happy  he  who  is 
permitted  to  answer  that  question  in  silence,  as  he 
can,  to  his  own  heart !  But  if  the  privilege  of 
silence  may  not  be  claimed,  let  speech  go  only  so 
far  as  indubitable  fact  goes  with  it. 

Now,  here  is  this  fact,  quite  indubitable :  the 
universe  brings  forth  man  and  comprehends  him. 
Does  it  bring  forth  its  own  superior  ?  Is  the 
product  of  a  higher  nature  than  the  whole  nature 
which  produced  it  ?  But  superior  to  it  man  surely 
is,  if  his  mind  and  heart  are  his  alone.  Tell  us  not 
here  of  mere  space,  size,  and  power.  What  are 


30  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

these  in  comparison  with  thought,  love,  loyalty, 
honor?  The  volcano,  vomiting  lava,  buries  a 
thousand  human  homes  ;  but  in  one  mother's  heart 
is  that  which  is  not  only  greater,  but  incomparably, 
unspeakably  greater,  than  all  volcanoes.  Were 
some  brute  leviathan,  big  enough  to  fill  the  ocean's 
bed,  the  equal  of  one  baby  Shakespeare  ?  The 
universe  is  the  mother  of  mind,  of  reverence  and 
pity,  of  the  love  of  justice  and  truth ;  is  it,  can  it 
be,  the  mother  of  that  which  is  foreign  to  itself  ? 
It  is  an  old  question,  and  old  enough  to  have  been 
answered  as  the  believers  in  a  dead  or  brute  uni- 
verse would  have  it,  were  it  answerable  that 
way. 

But,  farther  :  man  is  comprehended  in  the  unity 
of  the  all.  Now,  the  higher  may  thus  comprehend 
the  lower,  but  not  the  lower  the  higher.  Thus  the 
organism  of  man  includes  that  of  the  ape  ;  it  is 
all  that  and  more  :  but  the  converse  is  not  true. 
The  larger  circle  is  clearly  not  to  be  drawn  within 
the  lesser.  An  ape-universe,  or  one  rounded  in 
unity  at  that  degree,  could  not  comprehend  in  its 
unity  the  mind  of  Newton,  the  heart  of  Jesus. 

The  point  can  perhaps  be  more  clearly  put 
before  the  eye,  if  a  somewhat  grotesque  illustration 
be  permitted.  The  anaconda  is  a  unitive  organism 
of  a  certain  grade.  Imagine  that  to  this  organism, 
just  as  it  is,  a  human  head  were  somehow  added. 
The  total  thus  formed  were  no  organic  whole,  no 
unity  for  the  mind  ;  but  a  mere  monstrous  con- 
junction of  incongruities.  Well,  if  we  assume  an 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  31 

infra-human,  brute  universe,  —  whole  indeed,  but  in 
its  principle  of  unity  below  man's  degree,  —  the 
appearance  of  a  human  head  there  would  be  in  like 
manner  incongruous.  In,  such  a  universe,  indeed, 
in  its  idea,  in  its  unity,  a  human  soul  were  not, 
could  not  be.  Man  is  to  be  conceived  of,  were 
that  assumed,  as  a  capable,  wonderful  parasite, 
wandering  and  building  on  the  surfaces  of  a  cosmos 
to  which  he  does  not  belong,  which  knows  him 
not,  nor  corresponds  in  its  principle  to  the  genius 
that  animates  and  illumines  him.  And,  never- 
theless, this  same  alien  universe,  this  same  wholly 
foreign  Nature,  is  his  mother !  In  short,  the 
assumption  of  a  universe  merely  brute  in  its  all- 
comprehending  unity  is,  to  my  mind,  a  plunge  into 
a  bottomless  abyss  of  unreason,  where  thought  can 
think  only  its  own  contradiction. 

It  is  like  coming  from  a  pit  into  clear  air  and 
out  upon  the  sunlit  world,  when  we  turn  from 
these  confounding  imaginations  to  that  which  the 
religious  consciousness  ever  affirms,  —  a  luminous, 
spiritual  whole,  open  and  akin  to  the  mind  of  man. 
Religion  has  represented  the  great  whole  under  a 
human  form,  recognizing  this  as  its  largest  symbol. 
That  is  the  "  anthropomorphism "  nowadays  so 
much  complained  of.  Of  course,  the  complaint  is 
not  ungrounded.  When  there  is  set  before  us,  as 
the  object  of  worship  and  symbol  of  the  great 
whole,  some  celestial  Squire  Weston,  — a  particular 
individual,  and  with  his  full  share  of  individual 
limitation  ;  when,  moreover,  this  county  potentate 


32  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

is  taken,  not  as  merely  symbolizing  the  universal 
whole,  but  as  the  fact  itself,  —  then  the  cry  of 
anthropomorphism  is  quite  in  place.  But  when 
the  representation  of  the  universe  under  a  human 
form  is  cried  out  upon  because  one  believes  it 
infra-human,  inhuman,  brute,  then  the  occasion 
has  come  for  discrimination  both  ways.  The 
ancient,  world-old  worship  of  human  gods  signifies 
the  immanent  persuasion  of  man,  that  the  universe 
is  not  infra-human,  —  that  its  principle  of  unity  is 
spiritual,  lying  rather  above  man  than  beneath. 
Religion  has  said  that :  Can  reason  say  less  ?  1  see 
not  how,  —  with  what  adherence  to  itself.  The 
universe  is  not  a  house  divided  against  itself:  it 
comprehends  man  in  its  unity ;  the  lower  does  not, 
cannot,  thus  comprehend  the  higher.  Can  the 
mind  think  otherwise  without  unthinking  itself? 

And,  indeed,  the  unthinking  of  reason  by  reason 
itself  is  the  latest  method  of  escape  from  the  great 
conclusion  here  indicated.  The  intellectual,  moral, 
civilizing  genius  of  man  is  serenely  set  aside  as 
merely  "  subjective  ; "  that  is,  in  plain  terms,  as 
a  fiction  that  concocts  itself  in  his  breast,  a  con- 
geries of  unreal  images  that  plays  itself  off  in  his 
consciousness.  Reason,  therefore,  is  good  for  itself, 
but  has  no  validity  as  representative  of  universal 
fact.  As  when  a  little  girl  imagines  that  her  doll 
sleeps,  wakes,  listens,  takes  food,  and  does  so  with 
a  half-sense  of  reality,  these  fancies  are  good  for  the 
fancy  which  begets  them,  so  the  conscious  intelli- 
gence of  man  is  to  think  of  its  thoughts.  When 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  33 

the  light  of  thought  has  thus  dishonored  and  denied 
itself,  then  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  universe 
really  is,  not  what  it  seems  to  thinking  mind,  but 
only  what  it  is  found  to  be  by  the  unthinking 
senses.  Then  religion  also  goes,  of  course,  into 
the  same  limbo  of  subjective  illusion,  of  self-con- 
cocted fiction.  That  is  the  newest  fashion  of 
enlightenment,  —  cherished,  too,  by  good  men, 
sincere,  patient  inquirers,  able,  instructed  teachers, 
from  whom  I  gladly  learn.  But  what  wise  man 
shall  teach  us  the  wisdom  of  unthinking  thought, 
and  reasoning  reason  itself  down  ? 

Who  shall  do  so  while  the  fact  lies  before  the 
eye,  that  it  is  the  objective,  true  universe  itself 
which  biings  forth  the  supposed  fiction,  and  as  its 
highest  product  ?  It  flowers  in  the  consciousness 
of  man,  so  much  is  certain.  Flowers  in  fiction,  in 
unreality,  in  falsehood,  shall  we  say  ? 

The  plant,  observe,  puts  its  principle  at  the  top, 
rounds  itself  there  into  the  unity  of  the  seed. 
Man  is  the  summit  of  natural  process :  is  the 
unitive  principle,  the  little  whole,  not  also  there  ? 

Religion  is  the  sense  of  universal  relation  ;  and 
not  merely  of  dissolute  relation  with  this,  that,  and 
the  other,  but  with  the  universe  as  whole.  That 
whole  comprehends  man :  it  is  therefore  not  less, 
but  greater ;  not  lower,  but  higher.  Therefore  it 
is  living,  spiritual  unity.  The  question  of  grade  is 
answered  so,  if  it  is  to  be  answered  rationally. 

This  consciousness  first  makes  man  indeed  a 
citizen  of  the  universe,  and  at  home  there.  He 

3 


34  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

may  feel  that  he  is  really  in  such  a  universe,  and 
not  merely  on  it.  As  a  kindred  whole,  it  rings  to 
his  heart  in  tones  that  invigorate,  vitalize,  inspire; 
and  the  heart  rings  response,  for  it  is  also  whole  ; 
and  its  resonance  is  the  bibles  of  the  world,  or  say 
rather  the  one  great,  ever-proceeding  bible  of  man's 
worthy  thinking,  doing,  and  being.  And  so  it  is 
that  nature  is  ever  vocal  to  us  with  a  language  not 
unintelligible  nor  unmoving.  We  touch  tne  earth, 
and  cannot  feel  that  it  is  but  a  clod  beneath  the 
feet ;  we  look  up  to  the  heavens,  and  see  not  merely 
a  gas  mingled  with  vapors ;  the  sun  is  more  ever 
to  man  than  a  mere  ball  of  fire  ;  daisy  and  grass- 
blade,  wood,  hill,  and  river,  breathe  suggestion, 
without  voice  but  significant.  For  in  all  lives,  in 
all  speaks,  the  spiritual  whole,  not  unheard.  To 
every  human  soul  this  is  indeed  a  speaking  universe. 
What  if  it  were  not  such  ?  Then  man  himself  were 
dumb  ;  and  dumb  not  of  tongue  alone,  but  to  the 
core. 

It  is  perhaps  bold,  but  I  think  not  too  bold,  to 
say  that  religion  is,  as  in  this  view  it  should  be, 
the  root  of  all  civilization,  all  human  culture.  That 
civilization  began  with  it,  is  certain  ;  it  is  the 
historical  root,  if  no  more.  Auguste  Comte,  who 
would  limit  all  knowledge  to  the  mere  surface  of 
nature,  and  make  man  but  surface  even  to  himself, 
—  a  man,  however,  who  thought  largely  and  with 
method,  —  not  only  recognized  this  fact,  but  gave 
it  an  especial  prominence.  As  is  generally  known, 
he  found  in  the  history  of  civilization  three  great 


NATURE  OF  RELIGION.  35 

epochs,  of  which  the  first  was  characterized  as  the 
"  theological."  The  initial,  genetic  epoch  is  theo- 
logical ?  Civilization,  thought,  begin  there  ?  It  is 
significant  surely  !  Comte  himself,  indeed,  though 
professing  for  observed  fact  a  respect  not  only 
profound  but  exclusive,  had  no  use  for  this  one. 
He  simply  and  serenely  threw  that  epoch  away. 
It  signified  to  him  only  so  many  centuries  spent  in 
making  an  encumbrance  for  later  ages  to  get  rid 
of.  Is  that  the  wisest  way  to  contemplate  and 
treat  history  ?  A  parallel  case  will  perhaps  show. 
There  was  a  first  epoch  in  human  development, 
which  might  be  called  the  linguistic,  —  the  period 
when  language  was  forming.  This  passed,  and  men 
ceased  to  be,  in  a  considerable  degree,  makers  of 
language.  What,  then  ?  Had  speech  become  su- 
perfluous ?  Were  language  and  the  period  which 
produced  it  to  be  simply  thrown  away  ?  The 
making  of  language  came  first,  because  it  was  of 
primal  and  perpetual  necessity.  The  summary 
throwing  away  of  what  has  the  first  place  in  a 
process  of  world-growth  is  of  more  than  doubtful 
propriety. 

World-history  is  psychology,  —  is  the  natural  his- 
tory of  mind,  written  large.  He  that  will  hold 
fast  to  that  clew,  may  spare  himself  much  wander- 
ing and  groping.  Necessary  bases  in  history  are 
bases  in  the  mind  for  ever :  it  is  the  great  law  of 
unity  in  yet  another  aspect.  Find  the  order  of 
development  in  humanity,  and  this  represents  the 
dependence  of  powers  in  the  mind.  Metaphvsic 


36  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

might  learn  more,  did  it  pore  less  over  its  dis- 
tressingly fine  print,  and  read  now  and  then  the 
large  letter-press  of  that  open  book.  The  pre- 
cedence, therefore,  of  religion  in  civilization  may 
be  taken  as  a  hint  which  it  were  well  not  to 
neglect. 

Meantime  the  propriety  of  Comte's  terminology 
may  be  doubted.  The  primitive  ages  were  occu- 
pied with  the  suggestions  of  religion,  but  clearly 
not  with  theology.  Moses  and  the  singers  of  the 
Vedic  hymns  were  not  theologians ;  Jesus  was  no 
theologian.  Theology,  properly  so  called,  comes 
later ;  and  of  this  there  may  be  a  superfluity. 
Religion,  then,  is  initial  and  genetic  in  civilization  ; 
but  the  theologic  scholasticism,  that  accrues  upon 
it,  is  put  grossly  out  of  place  when  to  it  a  like 
antecedence  is  attributed. 

And  now  let  us  see,  by  an  instance  or  two,  how 
this  principle,  with  its  grand  key-note  of  unity, 
is  implicated  as  radical  in  what  chiefly  ennobles 
man. 

I.  It  is  the  radical  principle  in  morals.  For 
what  do  morals  exact  ?  Justice,  adjustment,  right 
unity  between  men.  The  underlying  truth  is  the 
one  spoken  of  old  :  "  We  are  all  members  one  of 
another."  Love,  justice,  truth,  loyalty,  pity,  are 
terms  of  community,  —  of  a  cordial,  faithful  holding 
together ;  hatred,  env}r,  injustice,  egotism,  treason, 
falsehood,  are  terms  of  disintegration  and  dis- 
union. 

What,  now,  is  the  principle  of  morals?     "  Util- 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  37 

ity,"  say  some.  Utility  may  be  accepted  as  the 
practical  criterion  of  morals :  what  is  in  the  high- 
est sense  useful  is  moral ;  that  is,  it  is  moral  to  do 
good,  and  immoral  to  do  mischief.  No  moralist 
disputes  that,  nor  can  it  be  regarded  as  a  recent1 
discovery.  But  the  producing  principle  of  morals 
in  man  is  one  thing,  and  the  outward  practical 
test  another.  Why  must  one  do  good  and  not 
evil  ?  What  says  that,  and  enforces  it,  in  the 
mind  ?  The  ideal  exaction  comes  from  that  law 
of  unity,  which  may  well  speak  sovereignly  in 
man,  since  it  is  sovereign  in  the  universe.  Mean- 
time a  right  holding  together,  a  true  faith,  with 
others,  is  equally  a  holding  together  with  one's  self. 
He  that  acts  with  a  vicious  intention,  acts  against 
his  own  better  knowledge,  —  knows  one  way  and 
wills  another.  He  violates  thus  the  unity  of  his 
own  being.  Conscience  is  the  vital  ligament  be- 
tween conviction  and  volition,  knowing  and  will- 
ing ;  and  he  who  cuts  that,  falls  asunder. 

II.  Rational  thought  has  the  same  interior  chord 
of  world-unity.  It  is  curious  and  significant,  in 
reading  the  beginnings  of  Greek  philosophy,  to 
find  it  occupied  with  the  question,  What  is  the 
universal  principle  ?  what  contains  and  explains 
all  the  rest  ?  But  why  assume  such  at  all  ?  Why 
suppose  that  it  at  all  exists  ?  Simply  because 
reason,  to  be  such,  must  assume,  what  religion 
asserts,  the  interior  oneness  of  all  manifoldness. 
How  is  one  to  think  rationally  and  not  think  this  ? 
Will  he  reason  of  causes?  Cause  is  the  law  of 

2065V 


38  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

unity  in  the  successions  of  things.  Will  he  rea- 
son from  analogy  ?  It  is  obviously  to  follow  the 
same  clew.  Does  he  reason  from  various  phe- 
nomena to  their  law,  after  the  manner  of  induc- 
tive science  ?  The  assumption  that  they  necessarily 
have  a  law  is  the  very  one  we  speak  of.  Why 
should  there  not  be  phenomena  without  law,  with- 
out cause,  without  connection?  The  imagination 
is  lunatic,  but  indulge  it  a  moment ;  suppose  such 
a  witch-welter  of  things,  then  put  reason  in  the 
midst  of  it,  and  where  is  it  ?  In  an  exhausted  re- 
ceiver. It  can  think  nothing,  for  there  is  nothing 
to  think,  nothing  but  contradicts  all  thought.  The 
wholeness  that  religion  affirms  is  the  faith  of  rea- 
son, without  which  it  ceases  to  be  such. 

III.  Again,  one  sees  what  a  part  is  played  in  the 
productive  genius  of  humanity  by  the  conscious- 
ness of  freedom.  There  is,  indeed,  a  false  conceit 
of  liberty,  and  there  has  been,  within  a  century, 
so  much  of  windy  mouthing  in  the  spirit  of  that 
conceit,  that  a  reaction  has  set  in.  Those  who  talk 
of  liberty  most,  scarcely  believe  their  own  words  ; 
while  it  has  to  many  become  a  recommendation  of 
the  mechanical  philosophy,  that  it  denies  the  fact 
altogether.  As  when  in  a  season  of  drought  a 
gusty  Aviud  blows  up  the  dust  in  dense  clouds, 
men  shut  the  eyes,  and  refuse  for  a  moment  to  see, 
that  they  may  save  sight,  so  in  this  case :  the 
mind  closes  itself  to  a  fact  about  which  such  a 
dust  of  demagoguery,  sentimentalism,  and  mock 
philosophy  has  been  raised.  But,  on  the  other 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  39 

hand,  banish  from  man's  breast  all  consciousness 
of  freedom  ;  let  him  really  feel  himself  a  machine 
and  no  more,  —  and  what  must  follow  ?  Duty,  re- 
sponsibility, heroism,  become  empty  syllables,  sig- 
nifying nothing ;  honor  and  shame,  self-blame  and 
self-respect,  turn  to  smoke.  George  Washington 
and  Aaron  Burr,  Luther  and  Tetzel,  St.  Paul  and 
Dr.  Titus  Gates,  become  moral  equivalents ;  that 
is,  one  and  all  equivalent  to  zero.  Admiration  dies 
with  the  notion,  the  possibility,  of  human  worth ; 
and  meantime  a  vital  incitement,  an  inspiration  of 
personality  and  of  history,  without  which  they 
were  to  the  moving  spectacle  of  life  what  dead 
ashes  are  to  flame,  would  be  then  no  longer.  Be 
it  that  the  consciousness  of  freedom  is  an  illusion, 
man  would  lose  his  human  genius,  his  human  soul, 
with  it.  Those,  therefore,  who  had  proved  it  fic- 
titious, would  have  next  moment  to  turn  around 
and  say,  "  Fiction  is  the  better  fact :  by  fiction  man 
lives  and  is  man  !  "  Who  could  wish  to  see  him- 
self placed  in  that  too  equivocal  attitude  ?  Just 
what  had  been  for  ever  disgraced  as  truth,  must  be 
cherished  as  practical  necessity,  and  preferred  be- 
fore truth.  But  how  in  a  world  of  law  is  freedom 
possible  ? 

The  divine  universe,  it  has  been  said,  with  brief 
assignment  of  reasons,  is  a  self-active  whole.  It 
is  therefore  free,  not  as  being  lawless,  but  as  gen- 
erating its  own  law.  It  itself,  in  its  wholeness, 
makes  and  is  the  law  which  it,  the  same  universe, 
in  its  parts  and  particulars,  observes.  Were  it  a 


40  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

machine,  externally  moved,  then  indeed  freedom 
were  possible  neither  for  it  nor  for  any  thing  within 
it.  But,  as  purely  self-moved  and  self-ruled,  it  can- 
not possibly  be  otherwise  than  free.  Now,  this 
free  whole  is  productive,  as  we  see.  Does  it,  can 
it,  never  bring  forth,  as  the  flower  of  its  expres- 
sion, some  image,  some  reflection,  of  itself?  Won- 
derful, if  in  a  process  of  ascending  production, 
extending  through  incomputable  periods  of  time, 
it  could  arrive  at  nothing  which  should  represent 
its  own  nature  !  Wonderful,  if  pure  freedom  must 
for  ever  bring  forth  only  its  own  contrary  !  These 
generalities,  however,  will  not  satisfy  the  doubt,  or 
rather  overcome  the  necessarian  dogmatism,  now 
current.  How  can  one  be  free,  say  our  philosophic 
friends,  seeing  that  he  is  operated  by  motives  ?  But 
is  one  operated  by  motives  ?  Addressed,  incited, 
by  them  one  is,  indeed ;  but  operated,  turned  as 
with  a  crank,  by  them?  Does  motive  signify 
mechanical  motor  f  Look  and  see.  A  wise  man 
does  not  of  necessity,  nor  habitually,  follow  the 
first  motive  which  addresses  him :  he  detains  it, 
says  "  I  will  think  about  that,"  considers  what 
were  best,  and  then  acts.  Now,  this  power  of 
detaining  motives,  of  deliberating  upon  them, 
weighing  them,  even  of  waiting  for  the  possible 
appearance  of  such  as  are  not  immediately  before 
the  mind,  is  already  freedom.  Has  the  machine 
any  such  power  ?  Can  that,  when  a  motor  really 
capable  of  moving  it  has  been  applied,  suspend  its 
own  motion,  and  wait  to  see  if  another,  stronger 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  41 

motor,  will  not  appear  to  overrule  the  one  already 
present  ?  When  that  self-suspense  of  the  will, 
perfectly  familiar  to  us  all,  has  been  accounted  for 
on  mechanical  principles,  then,  and  not  till  then, 
the  necessarian  hypothesis  will  be  admissible. 

Freedom,  so  far,  is  conditional  only,  I  grant. 
This  is  indeed  a  world  of  law ;  and  a  final  liberty 
against  law  there  cannot  be.  If  the  determination 
arrived  at  run  counter  to  the  self- affirming  and 
self-enforcing  law  of  the  great  whole,  then  it  is 
under  correction,  and  certain  not  to  escape  cor- 
rection. Otherwise,  the  sovereign  freedom  of  the 
universe  were  not  such  ;  it  might  be  contradicted, 
and  the  contradiction  be  sustained  ;  then  it  were 
already  under  constraint,  already  mutilated  and 
undone.  That  nation  is  not  free  as  a  whole  to 
govern  itself,  in  which  all  laws  are  at  the  mercy 
of  every  lawless  will ;  on  the  contrary,  it  has  as  a 
nation,  in  its  unity,  no  freedom.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  good  laws  take  away  the  liberty  of  no  good 
man.  If  he  may  not  disobey  them,  neither  would 
he  do  so  :  he  wills  the  law,  is  for  it,  not  against  it ; 
and  because  he  is  not  against  it,  neither  is  it  against 
him.  He  wills  his  obedience ;  how  can  what  is 
with  his  will  be  against  his  liberty  ?  And  thus  it- 
is  that  in  a  universe  of  law,  man  may  be,  to  the 
extent  of  morals,  free,  not  only  conditionally  or 
provisionally,  but  finally  and  wholly.  Rational 
duty  that  makes  itself,  is  free  in  obeying  itself. 
Without,  there- is  nothing  to  correct  it;  and  it  is  a 
law  to  itself  within.  When  the  soul  of  man  spon- 


42  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

taneously  generates  that  same  law,  which  springs 
eternal  in  the  universe  itself,  then  is  it  also  a  free 
whole,  inwardly  ruled,  and  not  outwardly  over- 
ruled. Now,  duty  does  make  itself  in  the  human 
soul ;  that  is  clear.  How  else  did  it  get  there  ? 
It  was  never  foisted  upon  humanity  from  without. 

We  say,  then,  first,  that  the  power  of  the  will  to 
suspend  its  action  while  motives  are  weighed,  or 
even  waited  for,  is  —  to  look  no  farther  —  a  free- 
dom of  the  will,  but  not  final :  there  is  a  subse- 
quent adjudication ;  secondly,  that  the  power  of 
the  human  soul  to  produce  spontaneously  the  law 
which  it  ought  to  obey,  opens  to  it  a  freedom  which 
is  final.  This  is  the  great  style  of  liberty,  and  I 
trust  it  will  one  day  be  better  understood.  Duty 
is  the  all-emancipating  human  word,  and  in  the 
sufficient  making  of  that  lies  the  superior  freedom 
—  the  only  one  that  should  be  named,  moral  or 
political — of  individuals  and  nations  alike.  And 
this  freedom  is  that  of  the  great  whole,  repeated,  — 
springing  in  man  from  its  native  sources,  and  mak- 
ing him  lawgiver,  that  he  may  be  free  as  the  subject 
of  law. 

Such,  then,  is  religion  ;  and  such  are  some  of  the 
relations  in  which  it  stands.  It  is  the  sense  of 
relation,  of  unity,  with  the  infinite  whole  ;  and 
morals,  reason,  freedom,  are  bound  up  with  it. 
If  all  this  has  been  but  hinted,  how  could  it  be 
more  under  the  conditions  ?  Time  is  limited,  and 
the  ground  so  large  ! 

Religion,  as  actually  represented,  has  indeed  ugly 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  43 

and  odious  manifestations.  The  best  historical  re- 
ligion in  the  world  is  many  times  more  stained  with 
crime  than  infidelity  ever  was.  Unbelief  has  no 
inquisition  ;  if  it  does  not  honor  the  cross,  neither 
has  it  consecrated  the  rack  and  the  fagot.  It  was 
a  pope's  legate,  and  not  d'Holbach  or  La  Mettrie, 
who  was  one  morning  seen  upon  his  knees  tying 
the  shoes  of  the  king's  strumpet,  the  infamous  Du 
Barry.  Voltaire  lied  at  discretion ;  but  when 
Archbishop  Manning  flatters,  for  a  purpose,  that 
religious  liberty  of  England  which  his  pope  damns 
openly,  and  himself  secretly,  is  he  an  honest  man  ? 
Too  often,  moreover,  has  the  Christian  church  — 
which  nevertheless  is  the  best  church  —  made  itself 
the  champion  of  moral  and  intellectual  barbarism. 
In  the  last  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  Bal- 
thazar Bekker,  of  Amsterdam,  himself  a  preacher, 
pure  beyond  reproach  in  character,  and  perfect  in 
all  decent  orthodoxy,  was  thrust  by  Protestant 
religion  from  the  pulpit,  and  with  cruel  persecu- 
tion harried  out  of  the  world,  for  not  believing  in 
witchcraft  and  possession  by  devils.  In  1612,  the 
Protestant  consistory  at  Stuttgart  issued  its  solemn 
reproof  to  the  great  Kepler,  bidding  him  bridle 
his  frivolous  curiosity,  and  no  more  vex  the  church 
of  Christ  with  vain  subtleties  ;  and  he,  under  the 
ban  of  religion,  must  pursue  his  grand  labor  in 
circumstances  of  poverty,  almost  of  misery.  But 
why  enter  farther  upon  the  long,  disgraceful 
chapter  ?  It  is  unreservedly  acknowledged,  that 
is  enough.  Well,  under  the  laws  of  growth  in 


44  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  vegetable  kingdom,  noxious  weeds,  the  deadly 
nightshade,  poisonous  fungi,  are  brought  forth: 
who,  therefore,  accuses  the  laws  of  growth,  and 
the  productive  energy  in  nature  ?  Culture  and 
classification  are  needed  in  religion,  as  in  all 
that  pertains  to  man.  If  there  be  much  of  mis- 
chievous false  reasoning,  is  that  an  argument 
against  reason  ?  It  is  an  argument  only  for  a  wise, 
capable  culture  of  it.  If  there  be  false  conscience, 
shall  we  therefore  decide  to  banish  the  sense  of 
obligation?  Religion  is  not  worse  represented 
than  any  other  great  principle  of  man's  being. 
It  were  well  to  be  sane  here  as  elsewhere. 

Let  religion  have  air.  It  has  been  kept  too 
close,  —  kept  in  that  "  house  of  God  "  that  derives 
from  the  mason  and  carpenter,  and  thereby  kept, 
so  much  as  may  be,  out  of  that  limitless  house, 
eternal  on  earth  and  in  the  heavens,  which  was 
not  made  with  hands.  It  needs,  as  preliminary  to 
all  else,  the  air  of  understanding.  We  have  now, 
not  only  to  feel  it,  but  to  think  it,  —  think  it  out 
of  that  supposititious  connection  with  nasal  tones, 
cut  of  a  coat,  verbal  formularies,  recited  gestures, 
which  has  so  almost  fatally  disguised  its  nature, 
and  think  it  into  all  the  largeness  of  morals,  poli- 
tics, science,  art,  industry.  I  do  not  mean  that  we 
should  proceed  to  tag  these  severally  with  words, 
phrases,  formularies,  called  religious :  if  they  need 
the  tag,  then  they  are  already  not  religious.  Purity 
in  morals  ;  true  faith  of  man  to  man  in  politics  ;  in 
science,  the  devoted  pursuit  of  law,  the  recognition. 


NATURE   OF  RELIGION.  45 

of  a  speaking  universe  ;  in  art,  truth;  in  industry,  a 
due  giving  for  all  taking  ;  and  acquiescence  in  that 
order  which  is  for  the  health  of  the  whole,  —  these 
are  religion,  as  whatever  is  which  expresses  a  liv- 
ing, cordial,  ordered,  productive  wholeness,  —  a 
unity  which  is  first  human  that  it  may  be  divine. 

There  are  many  to  cultivate  religion  in  a  sort ; 
there  are  some  whose  clear  calling  it  is  also  to 
clarify,  to  interpret  and  apply  it  rationally.  These 
are  far  from  having  occasion  to  blush  for  their 
work,  if  not  for  the  manner  of  doing  it.  None  is 
greater,  none  answers  more  to  the  needs  of  this 
age  and  of  all  ages.  One  is  here  at  the  root  of 
high  effects  ;  and  though,  in  the  long  seasons  of 
the  world,  he  may  not  live  to  see  the  fruit  of  his 
labor,  yet  every  drop  of  water,  fitly  poured,  finds 
its  way,  and  is  sweet  in  the  ripeness  of  the  fruit  at 
last.  And,  whatever  the  special  tendency  of  the 
present,  let  such  workers  be  sure  that  to  this  radi- 
cal, nutritive  mother-principle,  the  world  will  again 
come  cordially,  and  with  new  intelligence  ;  since, 
for  the  healthful  union  of  men  in  societies,  —  for 
that  prosperity  of  thought  without  which  man  is 
dehumanized,  —  for  the  vitalization  of  morals,  the 
maintenance  of  progress,  and  the  ennoblement  of 
character,  —  in  short,  for  the  sustenance  of  every 
high  faculty,  and  the  inspiration  to  every  memora- 
ble achievement  in  history,  this  principle  of  re- 
ligion, taken  in  the  fulness  of  its  great  import, 
must  ever  remain,  as  it  has  ever  been,  the  first 
necessity  and  resource  of  humanity. 


16  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 


THE  UNITY  AND  UNIVERSALITY  OF  THE 
RELIGIOUS  IDEAS. 

BY  SAMUEL  LONGFELLOW. 

r  I  ^HE    old    definition   of   Catholic   Truth   was, 
-*-  "  Quod  semper,  quod  ubique,  quod  ab  omnibus" 
—  what  has  been  believed  in  all  times,  in  all  places, 
by  all  men. 

It  would  be  eas}'  to  catalogue  the  diversities  of 
the  religious  conceptions,  the  moral  practices  of 
different  times,  places,  nations,  and  to  emphasize 
the  contradictions,  until  it  might  seem,  as  some, 
indeed,  believe,  that  there  is  no  truth  attainable  by 
man,  —  nothing  but  notions  and  opinions,  fancies, 
errors,  and  superstitions,  perpetually  changing,  and 
alike  futile.  Till  it  might  seem,  as  many  believe, 
that  nothing  but  a  miraculous  intervention  from 
heaven  could  at  last  reveal  the  truth  and  the  way, 
and  bring  any  order  out  of  this  chaos.  I  do  not 
believe  either  of  these  conclusions.  And  it  is  my 
undertaking  in  this  paper,  to  show  a  unity  and 
universality  of  truth  existing  in  spite  of  all  these 
diversities,  and  under  them  all ;  to  show  the  ele- 
ments of  truth  existing  beneath  all  errors  and  su- 
perstitions. I  take  the  errors  and  superstitions 
not  to  refute,  but  to  bear  testimony  to,  the  reality 
of  the  truth  they  have  so  poorly,  yet  so  really, 


'UNITY  AND  UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.      47 

represented.  These  are  the  witnesses.  Superstition 
declares  an  impulse  in  man  to  religion.  Idolatry 
establishes  the  inborn  impulse  to  worship.  Poly- 
theism reveals  the  native  instinct  in  man  to  con- 
ceive of  mysterious  power  above  man  and  nature. 
Necromancy  involves  a  belief  in  immortality. 
These  are  the  rude  beginnings,  the  imperfect, 
sometimes  monstrous,  growths.  But  where  there 
was  all  this  smoke,  there  must  have  been  some 
fire ;  where  there  was  all  this  manifestation,  there 
was  something  seeking  expression.  That  some- 
thing was  Religion :  man's  native  sense  of  some- 
what within  him  and  beyond  him  other  than  the 
visible  ;  the  sense  of  the  unseen  and  infinite  and 
perfect  haunting  him,  now  in  rude  and  incoherent 
dreams,  now  in  clearer  vision  ;  but  from  which  he 
could  not  free  himself.  He  tried  to  name  it,  and 
he  stammered.  He  tried  to  reach  it,  and  he  stum- 
bled. But  still  it  stirred  within  him,  and  would 
not  let  him  alone.  Still  it  shone  before  him  and 
beckoned  him  on.  )  That,  in  spite  of  all  unintel- 
ligible and  absurd  beliefs,  in  spite  of  all  burden- 
some and  monstrous  and  cruel  practices,  in  spite 
of  all  tyrannies  of  priestcraft  and  church  authority, 
nearly  all  nations  of  men  have  remained  religious, 
is  to  me  a  most  striking  proof  of  the  reality  and 
indestructibility  of  the  religious  element  in  man's 
nature.  J 

We  must  keep  in  mind  the  distinction  between 
essence  and  form,  — between  a  ground-idea  and  the 
outward  conception  in  which  it  shapes  itself.  The 


48  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

conception  varies,  as  the  idea  works  itself  out  in 
more  or  less  clearness  and  force. 

The  diversities,  however  great,  need  not  disturb 
our  faith  in  unities  of  idea.  But  the  diversities 
have  been  much  exaggerated.  The  unity  is  found 
again  and  again,  not  merely  in  the  underlying  idea, 
but  in  the  very  expression  of  the  truth. 

The  great  religious  ideas  are  these  :  God,  Duty, 
Benevolence,  Immortality.  And  these  are  univer- 
sal ideas.  They  have  been  believed  in  all  times, 
in  all  places,  by  all  peoples.  You  cannot  travel  so 
wide  but  you  will  find  temples,  or  the  ruins  of 
temples,  altars,  worships.  You  cannot  read  so  far 
back  into  the  history  of  men,  but  you  will  find 
men  thinking  of  God,'  praying  to  him,  trying  to 
do  right,  loving  their  kind,  looking  beyond  death 
to  follow  the  souls  of  their  friends  into  an  unseen 
world.  The  forms  which  these  ideas  have  taken 
have  differed,  and  do  differ :  depending  upon  na- 
tional character,  upon  race,  climate,  degree  of 
civilization  ;  sometimes  buried  under  superstitions, 
sometimes  coming  out  in  simple  forms  and  clear 
thought ;  clothed  in  one  form  of  words  in  the  im- 
aginative and  dreamy  East,  in  another  in  the  prac- 
tical West.  In  all  ages,  too,  and  peoples,  the  more 
enlightened  have  held  the  popular  faith  under  a 
different  aspect  from  the  ignorant.  In  all  ages 
and  peoples  there  have  been  individual  men  who 
have  been  above  the  level  of  their  time,  superior 
to  the  limitations  of  their  race  in  a  degree,  though 
never  entirely  free  from  them  ;  men  of  finer  organ- 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.          49 

ization,  wiser  mind,  more  sensitive  spiritual  percep- 
tion, keener  moral  instincts ;  lofty  and  saintly 
souls,  who  have  striven  to  draw  men  away  from 
superstition  to  truth,  from  baseness  to  virtue,  —  to 
awaken  them  to  a  more  living  faith  in  God,  duty, 
immortality.  These  men  have  been  reverenced  as 
prophets,  have  counted  themselves  sent  of  God. 
They  have  been  looked  upon  as  his  special  messen- 
gers. About  them  generally  after  their  death,  the 
reverence  of  men,  and  the  imagination  and  wonder 
of  men,  have  gathered  legends  of  miracles ;  have 
attributed  to  them  supernatural  birth  and  super- 
natural powers  ;  have  believed  them  incarnations 
of  a  descended  God,  or  have  raised  them  to  demi- 
gods, and  worshipped  them. 

I. 

The  first  great  religious  idea  is  the  idea  of  God. 
It  is  the  idea  of  a  mysterious  Power  superior  to 
man,  —  creative,  retributive,  beneficent.  With  this 
idea  the  mind  of  man  has  always  been  haunted 
and  possessed ;  and  growing  intelligence  has  not 
destroyed  it,  but  only  modified  and  elevated  the 
forms  of  it.  The  idea  is  germinal  in,  and  native  to, 
the  reason  of  man  ;  but  his  understanding,  sen- 
timent, and  fancy  have  embodied  it  in  many 
varying  conceptions.  We  trace  its  presence. and 
unfolding  through  the  forms  of  Fetichism  or  Idol- 
atry, Sabeism  or  Nature-worship,  Polytheism, 
Monotheism,  to  pure  Theism,  the  conception  of 
one  universal  infinite  Spirit,  whose  immanent  pres- 

4 


50  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

ence  is  the  perpetual  life  of  all  things,  whose  in- 
finite Personality  includes  and  inspires  all  persons, 
while  it  transcends  them  :  the  "  one  God  and  Father 
of  all,  who  is  above  all,  through  all,  and  in  us  all." 

Behind  all  idolatries  and  image-worships  there 
has  always  been  a  sense,  more  or  less  recognized,  of 
an  Invisible  which  they  represented  ;  and  the  more 
intelligent  have  declared  them  to  be  only  symbols, 
—  a  condescension  to  the  senses  and  imagination. 
Thus  an  English  missionary  relates  that,  standing 
with  a  venerable  Brahman  to  witness  the  sacred 
images  carried  in  pomp  and  cast  into  the  Ganges, 
he  said :  "  Behold  your  gods  ;  made  with  hands  ; 
thrown  into  a  river."  "  What  are  they,  sir?  "  re- 
plied the  Brahman,  "  only  dolls.  That  is  well 
enough  for  the  ignorant,  but  not  for  the  wise." 
And  he  went  on  to  quote  from  the  ancient 
V  Hindu  Scripture  :  —  "  The  world  lay  in  darkness, 
as  asleep.  Then  he  who  exists  for  himself,  the 
most  High,  the  Almighty,  manifested  himself  and 
dispelled  the  gloom.  He  whose  nature  is  beyond 
our  reach,  whose  being  escapes  our  senses,  who 
is  invisible  and  eternal,  —  he,  the  all-pervading 
Spirit,  whom  the  mind  cannot  grasp,  even  he  shone 
forth."  l 

In  like  manner,  wherever  Polytheism  has  pre- 
vailed, there  has  been  a  vague  sense  of  unity  ac- 
companying it  and  growing  clearer  with  growing 
intelligence.  One  of  the  gods  comes  to  be  re- 

1  Laws  of  Manu,  I.  5.7. 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  51 

garded  as  supreme,  and  the  others  to  be  but  his 
ministers  or  angels.  The  Jehovah  of  the  Jews 
appears  at  first  to  have  been  conceived  of  as  not 
the  only  God,  but  the  special  god  of  their  nation, 
superior  to  the  gods  of  the  other  nations.  Thus 
even  in  Homer  we  find  a  tendency  to  gather  up 
into  Zeus,  as  centre  and  source,  all  the  functions 
of  the  other  divinities : 1  a  tendency  which  after- 
wards developed  into  the  faith  expressed  in  the 
magnificent  Hymn  of  Kleanthes.  The  Egyptians 
believed  in  a  "  first  God  ;  Being  before  all  and 
alone  ;  Fountain  of  all."  A  very  ancient  inscrip-  ' 
tion  upon  the  tomb  of  Mentuhotep  speaks  of  "  Turn, 
the  one  Being,  the  great  God,  existing  of  himself, 
Creator,  Lord  of  all  gods."  2  In  the  "  Rig  Veda," 
the  most  ancient  collection  of  Hindu  Hymns,  we 
read:  "  They  call  Him  Indra, Mithra,  Varuna,  Agni ; 
—  that  which  is  One  the  wise  call  in  divers  man- 
ners." And  again  :  "  The  poets  make  the  beautiful- 
winged,  though  He  is  One,  manifold  by  their 
words."  3  So  the  later  "  Bhagavad  Gita  "  speaks  of 
"  the  Supreme,  Universal  Spirit,  the  Eternal  Person, 
divine,  before  all  gods,  omnipresent.  Creator  and 
Lord  of  all  that  exists ;  God  of  gods,  Lord  of  the 
Universe."  4  And  the  "  Vishnu  Purana  "  says, 
"  The  one  only  God,  the  Adorable,  takes  the  desig- 
nation of  Brahma,  Vishnu,  or  Siva,  accordingly  as 

1  See  Denis  :  Ilistoire  des  Theories  et  des  Id&s  Morales,  I.  7. 

2  From  the  translation  of  Lepsius. 

8  Riy  Veda,  I.  164,  46  ;  and  X.  114,  5.     See  Miiller,  Chips,  I.  29. 
«  Bha<j.  G.  ch.  X. 


52  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

he  creates,  preserves,  or  destroys.  He  is  the  Su- 
preme, the  giver  of  all  good." 1  The  Aztecs  of 
Mexico,  with  their  more  than  two  hundred  deities, 
recognized  one  supreme  Creator  and  Lord,  whom 
they  addressed  in  their  prayers  as  "  the  God  by 
whom  we  live,"  "  omnipresent,  that  knoweth  all 
thoughts  and  giveth  all  gifts,"  "  without  whom  man 
is  as  nothing,"  "  invisible,  incorporeal ;  one  God,  of 
perfect  perfection  and  purity."  2  So  the  ancient  Pe- 
ruvians had  their  "  Creator  and  Sustainer  of  Life  ;  " 
the  American  Indians,  their  Great  Spirit,  "  Master 
of  Life  ;  "  the  Scandinavians,  their  "  All-father." 

In  the  Masdean,  or  Zoroastrian,  belief,  Ormuzd 
(Ahura-mazda)  is  spoken  of  as  "  omniscient,  om- 
nipotent, and  omnipresent ;  formless,  self-existent, 
and  eternal ;  pure  and  holy ;  Lord  over  all  creat- 
ures in  the  universe ;  the  Refuge  of  those  who 
seek  his  aid."  He  is  invoked  as  "  the  Creator,  the 
glorious,  majestic,  greatest,  best,  most  fair,  might- 
iest, wisest,  highest  in  holiness  ;  who  created  us, 
who  keeps  us."  3 

And  where  the  forms  of  polytheistic  mythology 
occupied  the  popular  mind,  the  intelligent  and  phi- 
losophic have  always  regarded  these  as  but  shapes 
of  the  fancy,  and  taught  a  pure  doctrine  of  the 
unity  and  spirituality  of  God.  Xenophanes,  as 
Aristotle  relates,  casting  his  eyes  upward  to  the 
heavens,  declared  the  One  is  God.  He  condemned 

1  Wilson's  Transl.,  I.  41,  43. 

2  Prescott :  Conquest  of  Mexico,  I.  67. 

8  Avesta :  Fajna,  I.  1,  2.    Bleeck's  Translation. 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  53 

the  prevalent  mythologies  and  the  notions  of  gods 
in  human  figure,  and  severely  blamed  Hesiod  and 
Homer  for  their  scandalous  tales  about  the  gods. 
He  taught  that  "  there  is  one  supreme  God  among 
beings  divine  and  human.  .  .  .  He  governs  all 
things  by  power  of  reason."  The  Pythagoreans 
taught  the  unity  of  God,  and  compared  him  to  a 
circle  whose  centre  is  everywhere,  whose  circum- 
ference nowhere.  "  There  are  not  different  gods 
for  different  nations,"  wrote  Plutarch.  "  As  there 
is  one  and  the  same  sun,  moon,  sky,  earth,  sea,  for 
all  men,  though  they  call  them  by  different  names ; 
so  the  One  Spirit  which  governs  this  universe,  the 
Universal  Providence,  receives  among  different 
nations  different  names." l  "  There  is  but  one 
God,  who  pervades  all,"  writes  .Marcus  Aurelius, 
the  Roman  Emperor.2  "  In  all  this  conflict  of 
opinions,"  says  Maximus  Tyrius,  "  know  that 
through  all  the  world  sounds  one  consenting  law  **_ 
and  idea,  that  there  is  one  God,  the  King  and 
Father  of  all,  and  many  gods,  the  children  of  God. 
This  both  the  Greek  and  the  Barbarian  teach." 
And  again  he  says,  "  I  do  not  blame  the  variety  of 
representations :  only  let  men  understand  that 
there  is  but  one  Divine  nature  ;  let  them  love  one 
and  keep  one  in  their  thoughts."  3 

Upon  a  temple   at  Delphi  was  the  inscription 
=.  Thou  art.     And  upon  this  Plutarch  writes, 

We  say  to  God,  Thou  art :  giving  him  thus  his 

1  Cit.  by  Denis  :  II.  224. 

2  Thoughts,  VII.  9.  3  Dissert.,  38. 


54  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

true  name,  the  name  which  .belongs  alone  to  him. 
For  what  truly  is  f  That  which  is  eternal,  which 
has  never  had  beginning  by  birth,  never  will  have 
end  by  death,  —  that  to  which  time  brings  no  change. 
It  would  be  wrong  to  say  of  him  who  is,  that  he 
was  or  will  be,  for  these  words  express  changes 
and  vicissitudes.  But  God  is  :  He  is,  not  after  the 
fashion  of  things  measured  by  time,  but  in  an  im- 
movable and  unchanging  eternity.  By  a  single 
Now  he  fills  the  Forever.  For  Deity  is  not  many, 
but  that  which  is,  must  be  one."  * 

Again,  after  denying  the  fable  of  the  birth  and 
education  of  Zeus,  Plutarch  says :  "  There  is 
nothing  before  him :  he  is  the  first  and  most  an- 
cient of  beings,  the  author  of  all  things :  he  was 
from  the  beginning  ;  too  great  to  owe  his  existence 
to  any  other  than  himself.  From  his  sight  is 
nothing  hid.  .  .  .  Night  and  slumber  never  weigh 
upon  that  infinite  eye,  which  alone  looks  upon  the 
truth.  By  him  we  see,  from  him  we  have  all 
which  we  possess.  Giver  of  all  good,  ordainer  of 
all  which  is,  and  which  happens,  it  is  he  who  gives 
all  and  makes  all.  In  him  are  the  beginning,  the 
end,  the  measure,  and  destiny  of  every  thing."  2 

We  are  sometimes  pointed  to  Buddhism  as  an 
instance  of  a  religion  without  a  God.  That  its 
primitive  teaching  was  such,  I  suppose  must  be 
admitted ;  perhaps  it  was  a  reaction  from  the  ex- 
cessive devoteeism,  or  the  corrupted  worship,  of  the 

i  On  the  word  'El,  17,  19,  20.        2  Cited  by  Denis,  II.  225. 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.  55 

Brahmans.  But  it  was  not  long  before  the  Buddha 
himself  became  an  object  of  worship.  And  there 
is  ample  evidence  that  in  our  day  the  three  hundred 
millions  of  Buddhists  are  not  without  a  belief  in 
God.  In  a  Buddhist  tract  we  read :  "  There  appears 
in  the  law  of  Buddha  only  one  Omnipotent  Being.  v 
.  .  .  He  is  a  Supreme  Being  above  all  others  ;  and, 
although  there  are  many  gods,  yet  there  is  a 
Supreme  who  is  God  of  the  gods."  1  Hue  relates 
a  conversation  with  a  Thibetan  Lama,  who  said  to 
him,  "  We  must  not  confound  religious  truth  with 
the  superstitions  which  amuse  the  credulity  of  the 
ignorant.  There  is  but  one  sole  sovereign  Being 
who  has  created  all  things.  He  is  without  begin- 
ning, and  without  end  :  he  is  without  body,  he  is 
a  spiritual  substance."  2  And  Schlagintweit  says, 
"  In  face  of  all  these  gods,  the  Lamas  emphatically 
maintain  monotheism  to  be  the  real  character  of 
Buddhism."  And  again  he  speaks  of  a  chief 
Buddha,  Adi  Buddha,  called  "  Supreme  Buddha," 
"  the  Being  without  beginning  or  end,"  "  the  Su- 
preme Intelligence,  God  above  all."3  So  that 
evidently  the  statement,  "  that  a  third  of  the 
human  race  have  lived  and  died  without  a  belief 
in  God,"  is  altogether  too  strong. 

With  the  idea  of  God  we  find  united  the  idea  of 
providence,  beneficence,  and  friendly  care  toward  \ 

1  Upham's  Sacred  Books   of  Ceylon,  III.  13.     In  some  of  the 
tracts  of  this  volume  the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Being  is  denied. 

2  Journey  through  Tartary,  Thibet,  frc.,  I.  121,  122. 
8  Buddhism  in  Thibet,  p.  108. 


56  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

man.  And  from  this,  joined  with  a  perception  of 
a  moral  likeness  between  him  and  man,  sprang 
naturally  in  the  heart  and  mind  of  men  the  con- 
ception of  his  fatherhood.  This  thought  of  God 
as  our  Father  is  often  represented  as  the  peculiar 
revelation  of  Jesus.  But  it  was  known  and  taught 
long  before  and  far  beyond  Christianity.  We  find 
the  name  of  Father  familiarly  given  to  the  Supreme 
in  India,  Greece,  and  Rome. 

Thus  we  read  in  the  "  Rig  Veda,"  "  May  our 
Father,  Heaven,  be  favorable  to  us.  May  that 
Eternal  One  protect  us  evermore.  We  have  no 
other  Friend,  no  other  Father."  "  The  Father  of 
heaven,  who  is  the  Father  of  men." 

"  Father  of  gods  and  of  men,"  says  Hesiod  of 
Zeus.  And  "  Father  of  Gods  and  of  men,"  echoes 
Homer ;  and  again,  "  Zeus,  most  great  and  glorious 
Father."  "  Father  omnipotent,"  is  Virgil's  phrase, 
and  "  the  Father."  In  Horace  we  find  "  Father 
and  guardian  of  the  human  race  ;  "  "  the  Parent 
who  governs  the  affairs  of  men  and  of  gods  ; " 
"  the  Father."  Plutarch  declares  that  "  Zeus  is  by 
nature  the  Father  of  men ;  and  the  best  men  he 
calls  his  sons."1  "  He,  the  glorious  Parent,  tries  the 
good  man  and  prepares  him  for  himself,"  writes 
Seneca.2  "  God,  of  all  things  which  are  Father 
and  Maker,  more  ancient  than  the  sun  ;  whom  no 
voice  can  express,  no  eye  behold,"  says  Maximus 
Tyrius.  And  Epictetus,  "  If  what  philosophers  say 

1  Apophthegmata.  2  De  Providentia,  I.  6. 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.  57 

of  the  kinship  between  God  and  men  be  true,  .  .  . 
why  should  not  a  man  call  himself  a  citizen  of  the 
universe  ?  why  not  a  son  of,  God  ?  .  .  .  Shall  not 
having  God  for  our  Maker,  Father,  and  Guardian 
free  us  from  griefs  and  alarms  ?  "  And  again, 
speaking  of  Heracles,  he  says,  "  He  knew  that  no 
human  being  is  an  orphan,  but  that  there  is  a 
Father  who  incessantly  cares  for  all.  For  he  had 
not  merely  heard  it  said  that  Zeus  is  the  Father  of 
mankind,  but  he  esteemed  and  called  him  his  own 
Father,  and  in  the  thought  of  him  performed  all 
his  deeds.''1 

Philo,  the  Alexandrian  Jew,  says  that  "he  who 
regards  the  whole  universe  as  his  country,  feels  / 
bound  to  seek  the  favor  of  its  Father  and  Framer :  "  2 
and  again,  "  God,  whose  most  fit  name  is  Father ; " 
and  "  One  Creator,  one  Father." 3  And  in  the 
Talmud  we  read,  "  Every  nation  has  its  special 
guardian  angels  :  Israel  shall  look  only  to  Him. 
There  is  no  mediator  between  those  who  are  called 
his  children  and  their  Father  which  is  in  heaven." 
"  As  long  as  Israel  is  looking  up  to  its  Father  which 
is  in  heaven  it  will  live."  "  If  we  are  called  ser- 
vants of  God,  we  are  also  called  his  children."4 
In  every  synagogue  in  Judea  and  Galilee  were 
recited  at  each  service  these  sentences  of  prayer : 
"  Be  thou  merciful  unto  us,  O  our  Father,  for  we 
have  sinned."  "  Most  merciful  Father,  pardon 
us."  "  Bring  us  back,  O  our  Father,  to  the  keep- 

l  Disc.  I.  9  :  III.  2i.        2  De  Monarchic 

8  Confus.  of  Lany.  83.      *  London  Quarterly  Review,  Oct.  1867. 


58  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

ing  of  thy  law."  And  daily  in  the  temple  was 
spoken  the  prayer,  "  Bless  us,  O  our  Father,  all 
even  as  one,  with  the  light  of  thy  countenance."  1 

II. 

The  second  great  religious  idea  which  I  named 
is  the  Moral  Idea;  the  idea  of  Right,  of  Duty; 
and  the  sense  of  the  obligation  of  the  Virtues.  I 
call  this  religious  ;  I  know  it  is  often  called  "  only 
moral."  But  if  by  moral  be  meant  any  thing 
deeper  than  mere  custom  or  habit  or  external 
good  behavior;  if  it  go  down  to  principles  and 
laws  felt  to  be  of  a  creation  and  an  obligation 
superior  to  human  will,  —  then  we  are  in  the  realm 
of  the  invisible,  the  eternal,  in  the  realm  of  relig- 
ion. Therefore  I  call  righteousness  an  essential 
part  of  religion.  To  some  men,  who  have  little  of 
devout  sentiment,  or  who  have  speculative  difficul- 
ties about*  belief  in  God,  or  in  a  God,  morals  or 
righteousness  is  the  substance  of  their  religion ; 
and,  if  it  gives  a. sacred  sanction  and  an  immutable 
ground  of  nobleness  to  their  lives,  it  is  truly  a  re- 
ligion. To  the  devout  mind,  the  sentiment  and 
idea  of  right  become  identified  with  the  will  of 
God.  Obedience  to  the  law  of  our  own  being  is 
obedience  to  his  law  ;  his  service  is  therefore  per- 
fect freedom,  and  finds  its  sacred  sanction  in 
likeness  to  him. 

We  ought  not  to  be  surprised  to  find  that  the 
idea  of  right  and  wrong  has  been  universal  among 

1  See  Prideaux  and  Lightfoot. 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  59 

men.  That  is  but  saying  that  men  have  always 
been  men ;  have  always  had  consciences,  as  they 
have  alwa}-s  had  senses,  affections,  language,  so- 
ciety. We  ought  not  to  be  surprised  that  the  vir- 
tues of  justice,  honesty,  veracity,  purity,  have  been 
inculcated  and  practised  under  all  forms  of  relig- 
ion. Yet  there  are  those  who,  on  account  of  su- 
perficial diversities  and  differences  of  development, 
deny  any  universality  in  the  moral  ideas.  They 
point,  for  instance,  to  the  immoralities  attributed 
to  the  gods  in  some  of  the  polytheistic  mythologies. 
But  the  wiser  men  in  these  nations  disbelieved  and 
denounced  these  fables.  Thus  we  find  Plato  in 
his  "  Republic  "  at  great  length  blaming  Hesiod  and 
Homer  for  attributing  low  morals  to  the  gods,  and 
declaring  the  falsity  of  such  notions. 

But  even  among  those  who  currently  believed 
these  things  of  the  gods,  the  practice  of  them  was 
not  justified  or  approved  among  men.  There  was 
thought  perhaps  to  be  a  different  law  for  the  Im- 
mortals, or  only  their  own  will.  Just  as,  in  Chris- 
tendom, God's  mere  will  is  thought  to  be  for  him 
the  only  law  of  right.  In  Christian  churches  it  is 
currently  taught  that  he  may  justly  do  what  in 
man  would  be  monstrous  cruelty.  God  is  believed 
to  spend  eternity  in  burning  alive  those  of  his 
children  who  have  disobeyed  him,  or  who  have 
only  not  accepted  his  conditions  of  salvation  ;  or 
in  subjecting  them  to  tortures  of  which  burning 
alive  would  be  a  faint  symbol.  But  the  same  act 
would  not  for  a  moment  be  justified,  or  be  judged 


60  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

as  other  than  monstrous  cruelty,  in  a  man.  In  the 
decadence  of  Rome,  it  became  a  fashion  for  the 
dissolute  young  men  to  take  the  names  of  the  sev- 
eral gods,  and  addict  themselves  to  their  special 
vices ;  but  of  course  in  that  there  was  no  serious 
belief  of  any  kind.  And  precisely  in  these  periods 
of  corruption  we  find  the  wiser  and  better  men 
lamenting  the  prevalence  of  vices,  inveighing 
keenly  against  them ;  in  the  name  of  religion  urg- 
ing a  pure  morality,  endeavoring  to  awaken  the 
sense  of  personal  virtue,  and  working  reforms  in 
morals  and  manners. 

But  it  is  urged  that  practices  condemned  by  the 
conscience  of  one  time  and  religion  have  been  ap- 
proved or  commanded  by  that  of  some  others. 
Doubtless  these  diversities  in  the  application  of 
moral  judgments  have  existed,  and  do  exist,  ac- 
cording as  the  moral  sense  has  been  more  or  less 
enlightened  and  cultivated.  I  am  not  declaring 
the  absolute  uniformity  of  the  moral  —  or  the  re- 
ligious—  conceptions  or  practices  of  men;  only 
the  virtual  universality  and  essential  unity  of  the 
idea.  Doubtless  the  diversities  exist.  But  they 
have  been  exaggerated.  And  the  difference  is 
often  on  the  surface,  —  in  the  form  of  the  act,  and 
not  in  its  quality  or  motive.  Thus  human  sacri- 
fices, so  prevalent  in  primitive  worships,  are  held 
up  as  instances  of  sanctioned  cruelty.  So  they 
would  be  for  us  ;  and  always  they  mark,  of  course, 
a  low  state  of  religious  and  moral  perception.  But 
they  were  never  offered  in  a  motive  of  cruelty.  A 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.  61 

religious  feeling  overrode  the  natural  sentiment  of 
humanity ;  that  sentiment  was  sacrificed  in  what 
was  erroneously  deemed  a  higher  feeling:  as  in 
the  tale  of  Abraham  offering  his  son.  Moreover, 
under  the  practice  of  human  sacrifices  lay  the  true 
idea  of  offering  to  God  that  which  was  most  precious. 
Doubtless  the  young  men  who,  among  the  Aztecs, 
were  every  year  selected  and  prepared  for  the 
bloody  rites  of  the  god,  counted  it  a  glory  to  be 
so  consecrated,  and  went  to  the  teocalli  with  some- 
thing of  the  exalted  sentiment  with  which  a  youth 
devotes  himself  to  death  in  his  country's  defence. 
But  the  same  religions  which  enjoined  these  bloody 
offerings  to  their  gods,  enjoined  among  men  the  ob- 
ligations of  kindness  and  humanity.  The  Christian 
church  proclaims  daily  the  acceptableness  to  God 
of  the  great  Human  Sacrifice,  pictures  the  body 
torn  upon  the  cross,  and  dwells  with  earnest  itera- 
tion upon  the  efficacy  of  the  blood  shed  on  Calvary, 
and  its  necessity  to  appease  the  wrath  of  God. 
But  it  inculcates  at  the  same  time  on  men,  pity, 
compassion,  and  justice.  A  sincere  but  mistaken 
religious  sentiment  blinds  it  to  the  essential  cruelty 
and  injustice  involved  in  God's  acceptance  of  such 
a  sacrifice  as  it  depicts. 

With  all  the  differences,  then,  in  the  culture  of 
the  moral  sentiments,  and  in  the  application  of 
moral  judgments,  we  are  justified  in  declaring  the 
universality  of  the  moral  idea.  In  no  age  or  people 
has  any  thing  been  approved  because  it  was  unjust, 
or  that  was  seen  at  the  same  time  to  be  unjust. 


62  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

More  than  this :  we  find,  in  widely  different  nations 
and  times,  the  continual  recurrence  of  the  same 
moral  injunctions,  the  inculcation  of  the  same 
virtues. 

In  the  "  Vishnu  Purana,"  a  Brahmanic  scripture, 
we  read : 1  — 

"  The  earth  is  upheld  by  the  veracity  of  those 
who  have  subdued  their  passions,  and,  following 
righteousness,  are  never  contaminated  with  desire, 
covetousness,  or  wrath."  "  The  Eternal  makes 
not  his  abode  in  the  heart  of-  the  man  who  covets 
another's  goods,  who  injures  any  living  creature, 
who  utters  harshness  or  untruth,  who  is  proud  in 
his  iniquity,  and  whose  thoughts  are  evil." 

"  Kesava  [a  name  of  God]  is  most  pleased  with 
him  who  does  good  to  others,  who  never  utters 
calumny  or  falsehood,  who  never  covets  another's 
wife  or  another's  goods,  who  does  not  smite  or  kill, 
who  desires  alwaj-s  the  welfare  of  all  creatures  and 
of  his  own  soul,  whose  pure  heart  taketh  no  pleas- 
ure in  the  imperfections  of  love  and  hatred.  The 
man  who  conforms  to  the  duties  enjoined  in  the 
Scripture  is  he  who  best  worships  Vishnu  [God]  : 
there  is  no  other  Avay." 

"  The  duties  incumbent  alike  on  all  classes  are 
the  support  of  one's  own  household,  marriage  for 
the  sake  of  offspring,  tenderness  toward  all  crea- 
tures, patience,  humility,  truth,  purity,  freedom 
from  envy,  from  repining,  from  avarice,  from  de- 
traction." 

l  Transl.  of  II.  H.  Wilson,  Vol.  III. 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  63 

"  Know  that  man  to  be  the  true  worshipper  of 
Vishnu,  who,  looking  upon  gold  in  secret,  holds 
another's  wealth  but  as  grass,  and  directs  all  his 
thoughts  to  the  Lord."  "  The  Brahman  must  look 
upon  the  jewels  of  another  as  if  they  were  but 
pebbles." 

The  five  commandments  of  the  Buddhist  relig- 
ion, which  dates  six  centuries  before  the  Christian 
era,  and  counts  among  its  adherents  more  millions 
than  any  other  church,  are  these  :  1.  Thou  shalt 
not  kill.  2.  Thou  shalt  not  steal.  3.  Thou  shalt 
not  commit  adultery,  or  any  impurity.  4.  Thou 
shalt  not  lie.  5.  Thou  shalt  not  intoxicate  thyself 
with  drink.1 

I  need  not  occupy  space  with  quotations  of 
moral  precepts  from  the  ethical  writings  of  the 
Greek  and  Roman  philosophers.  A  single  sentence 
of  Aristotle  sums  them  up :  "  In  all  times  men 
have  praised  honesty,  moral  purity,  beneficence. 
In  all  times  they  have  protested  against  murder, 
adultery,  perjury,  and  all  kinds  of  vice.  No  one 
will  dare  maintain  that  it  is  better  to  do  injustice 
than  to  bear  it."  2  So  we  find  in  Cicero,  "  The  true 
law  is  everywhere  spread  abroad,  it  is  constant, 
eternal.  It  calls  us  to  duty  by  its  commandments ; 
it  turns  us  away  from  wrong-doing  by  its  prohibi- 

1  Upham's  Sacred  Books  of  Ceylon.     Sometimes  five  other  com- 
mandments are  added. 

2  Topic.  VIII.  x.,  cit.  by  Boutteville,  "  La  Morale,"  p.  642.     Fo 
Plato :  "  He  who  commits  injustice  is  ever  more  wretched  than  he 
who  suffers  it."     Goryias,  Bohu's  Tr.  I.  177. 


64  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

tions.  We  can  take  nothing  from  it,  change 
nothing,  abrogate  nothing.  Neither  the  Senate 
•nor  the  people  have  the  right  to  free  us  from  it. 
It  is  not  one  thing  at  Rome,  another  at  Athens  ; 
one  thing  to-day,  to-morrow  another.  But  eternal 
and  immutable,  the  same  Law  embraces  all  times 
and  all  nations.  There  is  one  Being  alone  who  can 
teach  it  and  impose  it  upon  all :  that  is  God."  l 

This  same  religious  sanction  of  right  doing  we 
find  in  various  writers,  urged  with  the  motive  of 
/•likeness  to  God.     "  God  is  just,"  says  Plato,  "  and 
I  there  is  nothing  that  resembles  him  more  than  the 
^just  man."2     "The  temperate  (virtuous)  man  is 
dear  to  God,  for  he  is  like  him."  3     Zeno  taught  that 
"  men  ought  to  seek  after  perfection  ;  for  God  is 
perfect." 4      Epictetus   says   that   he    who    would 
please  and  obey  God  must  seek  to  be  like  him. 
"  He  must  be  faithful  as  God  is  faithful ;  free,  be- 
neficent,  noble,  as  God  is ;  in  all  his  words  and 
actions  behaving  as  an  imitator  of  God."  5     "  Love 
mankind :  follow  God,"  writes  Marcus  Aurelius.6 

There  is  a  celebrated  moral  rule  which  is  called 
the  Golden  Rule  of  Christianity.  Confucius,  some 
five  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  was  asked, 
"  Is  there  one  word  which  may  serve  as  a  rule  of 
practice  for  all  one's  life  ?  "  The  Master  replied, 

1  Cited  by  Denis  :  Theories  Morales,  II.  16. 

2  Tfacetetus :  Bohn,  I.  411. 

3  The  Laws :  Bohn,  V.  140. 

*  Cited  by  Boutteville,  p.  531.  5  Disc.  II.  14. 

6  Thoughts,  VII.  81. 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.  65 

"  Is  not  reciprocity  such  a  word  ?  What  you  do 
not  wish  done  to  yourself,  do  not  do  to  others."  1 
Thales,  first  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  taught : 
"  That  which  thou  blamest  in  another  do  not  thy- 
self to  thy  neighbor ;  "  and  Isocrates  :  "  Thou  wilt 
deserve  to  be  honored  if  thou  doest  not  thyself 
what  thou  blamest  in  others."  2  "  Let  no  one  treat 
his  brother  in  a  way  he  would  Himself  dislike  "  is  a 
Sabean  maxim,  preserved  by  El  Wardi.  In  the 
fourth  chapter  of  the  so-called  "  apocryphal"  book 
of  Tobit,  among  many  other  excellent  precepts,  we 
read,  "  Do  to  no  man  what  thou  thyself  hatest." 
In  the  Jewish  Talmud,  also,  we  find,  "  Do  not  to 
another  what  thou  wouldst  not  he  should  do  to 
thee :  this  is  the  sum  of  the  law,"  given  as  one  of 
the  teachings  of  the  Rabbi  Hillel,  who  died  when 
Jesus,  according  to  the  common  reckoning,  was  ten 
years  old.3 

It  is  not  merely  external  rules,  nor  outward  good 
conduct  alone,  that  we  find  inculcated  in  these  uni- 
versal morals.  The  wise  and  good  in  all  times 
have  looked  within  the  heart  for  the  motive  and 
quality  of  right  action.  Confucius  continually 
urges  the  "  having  the.  heant  right."  "  I  keep 
pure  my  thoughts,"  says  a  Parsee  hymn.  And 
throughout  the  Zoroastrian  scripture  *^gooxL 
thoughts  "  are  always  joined  with  "good  words 
and  good  works."  u  Seek  to  converse  in  purity 

1  Legge  :   Confucian  Analects,  XV.  22 

2  Cited  by  Boutteville,  p.  533. 

3  London  Quarterly  Review,  Oct   1867. 

5 


66  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

with  your  own  pure  mind  and  with  God,"  says 
Epictetus.  "  The  first  and  highest  purity  is  that 
of  the  soul."  And  he  warns  his  disciple  that  he 
should  not  even  look  upon  the  wife  of  another 
with  an  impure  thought.1  So  Ovid :  "  It  is  not 
by  locks  and  bars  that  a  woman  ought  to  be 
guarded,  but  by  her  own  purity  ;  she  who  does  not 
sin  only  because  she  is  unable,  has  really  sinned  ; 
her  heart  is  adulterous."  2  And  Juvenal :  "  He 
who  in  the  silence  of  his  own  thought  plans  a 
crime  has  upon  him  the  guilt  of  the  deed." 3 
"  The  good  man,"  says  Cicero,  "  not  only  will  not 
dare  to  do,  he  will  not  even  think,  what  he  dares 
not  proclaim."4  "Keep  thy  divine  part  pure," 
writes  Marcus  Aurelius  ;  and  again,  "  Look  within ; 
within  is  the  fountain  of  good."  "  That  which  is 
hidden  within,  —  that  is  the  life,  that  is  the 
man." 5 

So  we  shall  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  not 
only  the  conspicuous  virtues  are  inculcated  by  the 
so-called  "  heathen  "  teachers ;  the  lowly  and  the 
passive  have  their  place  and  commendation. 
4i  Whoever  wishes  to  be  happy,"  says  Plato, 
"  must  attach  himself  to  justice,  and  walk  humbly 
and  modestly  in  her  steps.  He  who  lets  himself 
be  puffed  up  with  pride,  devoured  by  ambitious 
desires,  and  thinks  he  has  no  need  of  master  or 
guide,  God  abandons  him  to  himself.  He  ends  by 

1  Disc.  II.  18;  IV.  11.  2  Cited  by  Denis,  II.  1?4. 

*  Satires,  XIII.  V.  209.  *  De  Officiis,  III.  19. 

•  Tlunu/hts,  III.  12<  VII.  29;  X.  33. 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  67 

destroying  himself."  l  "  Do  what  you  know  to  be 
right  without  expecting  any  glory  from  it,"  is  given 
as  a  saying  of  Demophilus,  the  Pythagorean  ;  and 
"  Keep  thy  life  hid  "  is  said  to  have  been  one  of 
the  great  maxims  of  the  Epicureans.  "  Dear  to 
all  hearts  is  he  whom  lowliness  exalts,"  is  a  Persian 
saying  ;  2  and  another,  "  Make  thyself  dust  to  do 
any  thing  well."  "  He  who  knows  the  light,  and 
yet  keeps  the  shade,  will  be  the  whole  world's 
model,"  said  Lao-tze  ;  and  again,  "  He  that  hum- 
bles himself  shall  be  preserved  entire,  —  that  is  no 
vain  utterance."  "  To  attain  God,  the  heart  must 
be  lowly,"  is  a  Hindu  maxim.  "Patience  and 
resignation  is  the  one  road :  Buddha  has  declared 
no  better  path  exists,"  says  a  Chinese  scripture. 
It  has  indeed  been  objected  that  Buddhism  unduly 
exalts  the  "  passive  virtues."  "  Who  is  the  great 
man?  He  who  is  strongest  in  the  exercise  of 
patience,  he  who  patiently  endures  injury,"  is  a 
saying  attributed  to  the  Buddha  himself.  In  the 
Brahmanic  "Vishnu  Purana,"  "  Tenderness  toward 
all,  patience,  humility,"  are  named  among  the 
"  duties  incumbent  on  all."  Humility  is  said  to 
have  had  only  an  ignoble  meaning  with  the 
Romans ;  but  Epictetus,3  who  may  have  learned 
the  lesson  as  a  slave,  recommends  to  his  disciple  to 
"  train  and  perfect  his  will  and  render  it  noble, 

1  Cited  by  Boutteville. 

2  This  and  the  following  sentences  are  from  Conway's  Sacred 
Antholocty. 

a  Disc.  I.  4 ;  II.  8. 


68  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

free,  faithful,  humble"  And  elsewhere  he  says, 
"  Such  will  I  show  myself  to  you,  faithful,  modest, 
noble,  tranquil,  since  Olympian  Zeus  himself  does 
not  haughtily  lift  his  brow."  In  his  imperial 
palace  Marcus  Aurelius  could  say  to  himself, 
"  Take  care  that  thou  be  not  made  into  a  Caesar. 
.  .  .  Keep  thyself  simple,  good,  pure  .  .  .  kind, 
affectionate."  Again,  "  Make  thyself  all^smi- 
plicitv." l  He  everywhere  praises  modesty  ;  and 
commends  the  "sweetness"  and  "patience"  of 
Antonine.  "  The  more  exalted  we  are,  the  more 
lowly  we  ought  to  walk,"  said  Cicero.2  In  the 
Talmud  we  read,  "  He  who  humbles  himself  will 
be  lifted  up ;  he  who  exalts  himself  will  be  hum- 
bled." "  He  who  offers  humility  before  God  and 
man  shall  be  rewarded  as  if  he  had  offered  all  the 
sacrifice  in  the  world."  And  again,  "  He  who 
gives  alms  in  secret  is  greater  than  Moses." 3  So 
Seneca  wrote,  "  That  which  is  given  to  infirmity, 
to  indigence,  to  honest  poverty,  ought  to  be  given, 
in  secret,  and  known  only  to  those  who  are  bene- 
fited by  it.  ...  Such  is  the  law  of  benefits  be- 
tween men,  —  the  one  ought  to  forget  at  once  what 
he  has  given,  the  other  never  to  forget  what  he  has 
received."  4  And  Plutarch,  "  The  virtuous  man 
buries  in  silence  his  good  deeds."  "  All  thinking 
beings,"  says  Marcus  Aurelius,  "  have  been  made 
one  for  the  other ;  they  owe  patience  one  toward 
another."  "  'Tis  against  nature  to  cherish  ill-will 

i  VI.  30 ;  IV.  28.  2  De  Off.  I.  20. 

3  London  Quarterly,  Oct.  1867.  *  De  Benefidis. 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.          C9 

to  him  who  is  your  neighbor,  your  kindred,  your 
brother." 

III. 

And  so  we  strike  upon  the  sentiment  of  benev- 
olence, the  virtue  of  disinterestedness,  the  idea  of 
Brotherhood.  We  shall  find  the  inculcations  of 
Love  as  widely  spread  as  those  of  Justice.  While 
inhumanity  has  always  existed  in  the  world,  and 
selfishness  and  cruelty,  certainly  not  yet  outgrown, 
in  all  times  there  have  been  protests  against  them 
from  the  lips  of  the  good,  from  the  better  heart  of 
man.  Always  there  have  been  kindness,  forgive- 
ness, charity,  and  the  inculcation  of  them.  Those 
sweet  waters  have  flowed  ever  from  the  perennial 
springs  in  the  heart  of  man  and  of  God,  to  refresh 
even  the  most  desert  places.  "  He  who  injures  any 
living  creature,  does  it  to  God,"  says  the  "Vishnu 
Purana  "  :  "  He  is  most  pleased  with  the  man  who 
does  good  to  others  ;  who  bears  ill-will  to  none." 
"  The  Brahman  must  ever  seek  to  promote  the 
good  of  others,  for  his  best  riches  are  benevolence 
to  all."  "  He  who  feeds  himself  and  neglects  the 
poor  and  the  friendless  stranger  needing  hospitality, 
goes  to  hell."  "  He  who  eats  his  food  without 
bestowing  any  upon  his  guest  eats  iniquity."  The 
Pythagoreans  taught  that  the  old  ought  to  treat 
the  young  with  benevolence  ;  and  men,  to  be  kind 
to  children,  remembering  that  childhood  is  espe- 
cially dear  to  God.  We  must  bear  one  another's 
burdens,  they  said,  but  not  lay  burdens  on  any. 


70  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Justice,  they  said,  is  the  beginning  of  political 
equality,  but  brotherly  love  is  the  completion  of  it. 
If  disputes  or  anger  arose  between  any  of  his  dis- 
ciples, their  master  taught  them  to  be  reconciled 
before  the  sun  should  go  down.1  lamblichus  tells 
us  that,  "  Pythagoras  taught  the  love  of  all 
towards  all."  2  In  Confucius  we  find  these  notice- 
able words :  "  My^doctrine  is  simple  and  eas 
understand.  It  consists  only  in  having  the  heart 
right,  and  in  loving  one's  neighbor  as  one's  self."3 
And  when  one  asked  him  about  benevolence,  he 
answered  "  it  is  love  to  all  men."4  "  We  are  by 
nature  inclined  to  love  men,"  says  Cicero.5  "  Take 
away  love  and  benevolence,  and  you  take  away  all 
the  joy  of  life."  6  "  Kindness,  justice,  liberality, 
are  more  in  accordance  with  our  nature  than  the 
love  of  pleasure,  of  riches,  or  even  of  life."  And 
he  quotes  with  approval  the  maxim  of  the  Stoics, 
that  "  men  are  born  for  the  sake  of  men,  that 
they  may  mutually  benefit  one  another."  7  "  What 
good  man,  what  religious  man,  will  look  upon  the 
sufferings  of  others  as  foreign  to  him  ? "  writes 
Juvenal.8  "  Is  there  a  better  sentiment  than  com- 
passion ?  "  says  Quintilian,  "  or  one  whose  source 

i  Denis,  I.  15,  16.  *  Boutteville,  p.  381,  note. 

3  Pauthier's  Transl.,  p.  130.  He  declares  his  version  to  be 
exact.  Legge  renders  more  verbosely  and  prosaically  :  "  to  be  true 
to  the  principles  of  our  nature,  and  the  benevolent  exercise  of  them 
to  others."  The  two  Chinese  words,  he  says,  mean  literally 
centre-heart  and  as-heart.  Analects,  IV.  15. 

*  Analects,  XII.  22.  5  Oe  Leg.  I.  15.          6  De  Amicitia. 

1  De  Off.  1U.  5;  I.  7.       «  Satires,  XV.  131. 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  71 

lies  more  in  the  most  venerable  and  sacred  prin- 
ciples of  nature  ?  God,  the  author  of  all  things 
here  below,  wills  that  we  should  help  one  another. 
...  If  I  have  given  bread  to  a  stranger  in  the 
name  of  that  universal  brotherhood  which  binds 
together  all  men  under  the  common  Father  of 
nature,  would  it  not  be  a  good  deed  to  have  saved 
a  soul  ready  to  perish  ?  "  1  Menander,  the  Greek 
dramatist,  has  these  beautiful  sentences :  "  To  live 
is  not  to  live  for  one's  self  alone.  Let  us  help  one 
another.  Let  us  learn  to  have  pity  upon  the  sor- 
rows of  others,  that  they  may  with  cause  have 
compassion  upon  ours.  Help  the  stranger,  for 
thou  mayest  one  day  be  a  stranger.  Let  the  rich 
man  remember  the  poor ;  for  the  poor  belong  to 
God." 

u  Will  you  not  bear  with  your  brother, "  cries 
Epictetus,  "  who  has  Gqd  for  his  Father,  his  son 
as  thou  art,  of  the  same  high  descent  ?  "  Notice 
this  religious  motive  urged  for  brotherly  love. 
And  again,  "  Will  you  not  remember  over  whom 
you  bear  rule,  that  they  are  by  nature  your 
kindred,  your  brothers,  offspring  of  God  ?  "  2  speak- 
ing of  slaves.  Epictetus  had  himself  been  a  slave. 
The  poet  Terence,  who  had  known  the  same  hard 
experience,  had  plucked  from  it  the  same  flower 
of  sympathy  for  his  fellows.  His  sentence,  "  I  am 
a  man,  nothing  human  can  I  count  foreign  to  me," 
has  become  almost  a  proverb.  Menander,  before 

i  Cited  by  Denis,  II.  156.  2  Disc.  I.  13. 


72  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

him  had  said  in  almost  the  same  words,  "  No  man 
is  a  stranger  to  me,  provided  he  be  a  good  man. 
For  we  have  all  one  and  the  same  nature,  and  it 
is  virtue  alone  which  makes  the  true  kindred." 
So  Marcus  Aurelius :  "  The  good  man  remembers 
that  every  rational  being  is  his  kinsman,  and  that 
to  care  for  all  men  is  according  to  man's  nature." 
"  We  are  made  for  co-operation :  to  act  against 
another,  then,  is  contrary  to  nature."  "  We  are 
created  especially  for  the  sake  of  one  another." 
"  It  is  the  proper  work  of  a  man  to  be  benevolent 
to  his  kind."  1 

The  doctrine  of  the  Brotherhood  of  Man  has 
been  declared  to  be  found  in  Christian  teaching 
alone.  It  is  difficult  to  find  it  in  the  Gospels  ;  the 
single  sentence  usually  quoted  having  reference 
only  to  the  small  company  of  Christian  disciples. 
Paul  states  it  in  one  passage  :  "  God  has  made  of 
one  blood  all  the  nations  of  men."  But  the  idea 
was  already  familiar  to  the  heart  and  mind  of 
good  men.  Denis,  in  his  learned  and  interesting 
work  on  the  "  Moral  Theories  and  Ideas  of  Antiq- 
uity," from  which  many  of  my  quotations  have  been 
gathered,  says  that  "  Diodorus  proposed  to  him- 
self to  write  a  universal  history  on  the  ground 
that  men  everywhere  belong  to  one  family.  "  Plu- 
tarch speaks  of  "  that  admirable  republic  imagined 
by  Zeno,  the  founder  of  the  Stoic  sect,"  which 
shows  us  "  that  all  men  are  our  countrymen  and 

i  HI.  4;  II.  1;  VIIL  66,26. 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  73 

fellow-citizens ; "  and  he  adds  that  "  Zeno  left 
this  description  as  the  dream  or  imagination  of 
equity  and  of  a  philosophic  republic ;  but  what  he 
taught,  Alexander  realized.  Conceiving  that  he 
was  sent  of  God  to  unite  all  together,  he  formed 
of  a  hundred  diverse  nations  one  single  universal 
body ;  mingling,  as  it  were,  in  one  cup  of  friendship 
the  customs  and  laws  of  all."  1 

"  The  love  of  mankind,"  — caritas  generis  human* 
—  is  Cicero's  beautiful  phrase ; 2  and  the  expres- 
sion "  the  fellowship  of  the  human  race  "  often 
recurs  in  his  writings.3  "  A  man  must  believe 
himself  born  not  for  himself,  but  for  the  whole 
world,"  writes  Lucan ;  and  he  foretells  the  time 
when  "  the  human  race  will  lay  aside  its  weapons, 
and  all  nations  will  love  each  other."4  "We  are 
members  of  one  great  body :  nature  has  made  us 
kindred  .  .  .  and  implanted  in  us  mutual  love,"  — 
these  are  the  words  of  Seneca.5 

But  this  is  not  all.  We  find  among  the  writers 
of  "  heathen  "  antiquity,  not  merely  the  inculcation 
of  kindness,  compassion,  benevolence :  these  find 
their  highest  expression  in  the  doctrine  of  forgive- 
ness of  enemies.  No  doubt  we  find  the  lex  talionis  : 
the  Greek  Eschylus,  with  his  "  evil  for  evil," 
matches  the  Hebrew  "  eye  for  eye."  But  it  was 
also  a  Hebrew  proverb,  "  If  thine  enemy  hunger, 
give  him  bread  to  eat ;  if  he  thirst,  give  him  water 

l  De  Fort.  Alexand.  2  De  Fin. 

3  De  Off.  I.  44 ;  III.  6.  De  Amiatia. 

4  Pharsalia,  II.  383;  VI.  «  Epist.  95. 


74  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

to  drink."  ]  The  Pythagoreans  taught,  that  if  in 
the  state  the  law  recompensed  evil  with  evil, 
private  men  ought,  on  the  contrary,  to  injure 
none,  but  to  support  patiently  wrongs  and  insults.2 
Pittacus,  one  of  the  seven  wise  men  of  Greece, 
taught  that  clemency  is  preferable  to  vengeance, 
which  brings  remorse  ;  that  "  it  is  better  to  pardon 
than  to  punish ;  "  and  said,  "  Do  not  speak  ill  of 
your  friends  ;  no,  not  even  of  your  enemies."  So 
Cleobulus  said  that  "  we  ought  to  be  kind  to  our 
friends,  to  make  them  more  our  friends  ;  and  to  our 
enemies,  to  make  them  our  friends."  Confucius 
thought  that  we  "  ought  to  repay  injuries  with 
justice,  and  kindness  with  kindness ; " 3  but  his 
countryman  Lao-tze  had  said,  "  The  wise  man 
avenges  his  injuries  by  benefits."  4  Plato  reports 
Socrates  as  saying,  "  Neither  ought  one  who  is 
injured  to  return  the  injury,  as  the  multitude  think, 
since  it  is  on  no  account  right  to  do  injustice.  It 
is  not  right,  therefore,  to  return  an  injury,  or  to  do 
evil  to  any  man,  however  we  may  have  suffered 
from  him."  5  In  later  times  Cicero  teaches  a  simi- 
lar less-on.  "  Let  us  not  listen,"  he  says,  "  to  those 
who  think  we  ought  to  be  angry  with  our  enemies, 
and  believe  this  to  be  great  and  manly.  Nothing 
i.s  more  praiseworthy,  nothing  more  marks  a  great 
and  noble  soul,  than  clemency  and  the  readiness 
to  forgive."  6  And  Valerius  Maximus,  the  Roman 

l  Prov.  XXV.  21.         2  Denis  I.  14.         3  Analects,  XXV.  36. 

<  Tao-te-king  (translation  of  Stan.  Julien.)  II.  73. 

6  Crtio:  Boim,  I.  38.  °  tie  Off.  I.  25. 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  75 

historian,  says  still  better :  "  It  is  more  beautiful 
to  overcome  injury  by  the  power  of  kindness,  than' 
oppose  to  it  obstinacy  and  hatred."  1  In  Seneca 
and  Epictetus,  the  like  sentiments  are  found. 
Marcus  Aurelius  compares  the  wise  and  humane 
soul  to  a  spring  of  pure  and  sweet  water,  which, 
though  the  passer-by  may  curse  it,  continues  to 
offer  him  a  draught  to  assuage  his  thirst ;  and, 
even  if  he  cast  into  it  mire  and  filth,  hastens  to 
reject  it,  and  flows  on  pure  and  undisturbed.2 
This  recalls  the  equally  beautiful  image  in  the 
Oriental  scripture  of  the  sandal  tree,  which,  in  the 
moment  when  it  falls  before  the  woodman's  stroke, 
gives  its  fragrance  to  the  axe  which  smites  it 
with  death. 

I  cannot  better  close  this  part  of  my  subject 
than  by  quoting  that  fine  passage  from  Epictetus, 
where  he  draws  the  picture  of  the  true  "  Cynic," 
he  calls  him,  as  men  now  say  the  true  "  Christian." 
"  The  Cynic  must  fence  himself  with  virtuous 
shame.  .  .  .  He  must  purify  his  soul.  .  .  .  He  must 
know  that  he  is  a  messenger  sent  from  Zeus  to 
men  to  teach  them  of  good  and  evil.  .  .  .  He  must 
tell  them  the  truth,  without  fear  ....  He  must 
consult  the  Divinity,  and  attempt  nothing  without 
God.  .  .  .  He  will  needs  be  smitten,  yet  he  must 
love  those  who  smite  him,  as  being  the  father, 
the  brother,  of  all.  .  .  .  When  he  rebukes  he  will 
do  it  as  a  father,  as  a  .brother,  as  the  minister 

i  IV.  2.  2  vill.  51. 


76  FEEEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

of  the  Father  of  all.  .  .  .  He  must  have  such 
patience  as  to  seem  insensible  and  like  a  stone 
to  the  vulgar.  .  .  .  Instead  of  arms  and  guards, 
conscience  will  be  his  strength.  For  he  knows 
that  he  has  watched  and  toiled  for  mankind,  that 
he  has  slept  pure  and  waked  purer,  and  that  he 
has  regulated  all  his  thoughts  as  the  minister  of 
Heaven."  1 

I  am  tempted  to  add  as  a  companion  picture  that 
which  Marcus  Aurelius  draws  of  the  good  man. 
"  He  is  as  a  priest  and  minister  of  the  gods ;  de- 
voted to  that  divinity  which  hath  its  dwelling 
within  him  ;  by  virtue  of  which  the  man  is  uncon- 
taminable  by  any  pleasure,  invulnerable  to  every 
grief,  inviolable  to  every  injury,  insensible  to  every 
malice ;  a  fighter  in  the  noblest  fight,  dyed  deep 
with  justice,  accepting  with  all  his  soul  that  which 
the  Providence  of  the  Universe  appoints  him.  .  .  . 
He  remembers  also  that  every  rational  being  is  his 
kinsman,  and  that  to  care  for  all  men  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  nature  of  man."  2 

IV. 

The  last  great  Religious  Idea  which  I  named  is 
that  of  Immortality,  or  the  continued  life  of  the 
soul  after  the  body's  death. 

It  may  surprise  those  who  have  been  brought 
up  in  a  different  view,  but  I  believe  it  to  be  the 
simple  fact,  that  no  truth  of  Religion  has  been 

i  Disc.  ffl.  22.  2  in.  4. 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.  77 

more  universal  than  this.  In  all  ages  of  which 
any  history  has  come  to  as,  in  nearly  all  nations  of 
which  we  have  any  trustworthy  account,  we  find, 
this  faith :  not  a  hope  merely,  not  "•  one  guess ' 
among  many,"  but  a  confidence,  a  practical  assur- 
ance, a  faith  to  live  by  and  to  die  by.  Hardly 
a  people  so  savage  but  some  traces  of  it  are  discover- 
able ;  none  so  civilized  that  they  have  outgrown 
it ;  an  essential  element  in  all  religions.  Supersti- 
tions and  foolish  fancies  about  it,  in  plenty,  no 
doubt ;  but  revealed  through  them  all  the  central 
idea,  the  inner  belief.  From  the  wisest  and  best 
in  different  ages  and  nations  the  clearest  statements 
of  faith  in  it.  No  doubt,  rude  nations  have  had 
rude  conceptions  of  it ;  no  doubt,  as  nations  grew 
more  advanced  the  old  mythologies  about  it  lost 
their  hold,  and  were  discarded  even  with  ridicule 
as  unworthy  the  belief  of  thinking  men  ;  and  some 
men,  with  the  going  of  the  fables,  lost  their  faith 
also  in  the  idea.  But  in  these  very  times,  some  of 
the  wisest  and  best  men  sought  to  rescue  the  faith 
and  establish  it  on  a  deeper  basis.  The  idea  sur- 
vived the  form  which  it  had  cast  off. 

Caesar  tells  us  of  the  ancient  Gauls,  that,  "  to 
arouse  their  courage,  by  taking  away  the  fear  of 
death,  the  Druids  preach  that  souls  do  not  die."  l 
And  Pomponius  Mela  says  that  they  believe  "  that 
souls  are  eternal,  and  that  there  is  another  life."2 
And  Valerius  Maximus  confirms  the  statement: 

i  De  Bdlo  Gall.  VI.  14.  2  De  Situ  Orlis,  III.  2. 


78  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

"  They  are  persuaded  that  the  souls  of  men  are 
immortal."  1 

In  later  times  Spanish  conquerors  go  to  Mexico 
and  Peru,  and  find  the  faith  in  immortality,  as  in 
God,  already  there.2  Roman  Catholic  missionaries 
visit  India,  China,  Thibet,  and  find  it  there ;  go 
among  the  North  American  Indians,  and  find  it 
there.  Dr.  Livingstone,  the  English  missionary, 
penetrates  into  the  interior  of  Africa,  and  brings 
home  this  report :  "  There  is  no  necessity  for 
beginning  to  tell  even  the  most  degraded  of  these 
people  of  the  existence  of  God,  or  of  a  future  state, 
these  facts  being  universally  admitted.  .  .  .  On 
questioning  intelligent  men  among  the  Bakwains 
as  to  their  former  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  of 
God,  and  of  a  future  state,  they  have  scouted  the 
idea  of  their  ever  having  been  without  a  tolerably 
clear  conception  on  all  these  subjects."  .  .  .  "They 
fully  believe  in  the  soul's  continued  existence  apart 
from  the  body,  and  visit  the  graves  of  relatives, 
making  offerings."  3  There  are  travellers,  indeed, 
who  report  of  tribes  that  have  belief  neither  in 
immortality  nor  in  God.  If  it  be  so,  we  must 
regard  these  as  exceptional  instances,  where  the 
native  human  faiths  are  yet  undeveloped. 

The  Jewish  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament 
contain  only  faint  intimations  of  a  future  life. 
This  is  the  more  remarkable  since  the  belief  was 

1  II.  6, 10. 

2  Prescott :  Cong,  of  Mexico,  I.  62.     Conq.  of  Peru,  I.  89. 

3  Missionary  Travels  in  South  Africa,  pp.  176,  686. 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.  79 

so  strongly  held  in  Egypt  at  and  before  the  time 
of  Moses.  Perhaps  the  beliefs  of  their  oppressors 
were  hateful  to  them.  Be  this  as  it  may,  we  find 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  clearly  taught  in  the 
"  apocryphal "  books  of  Alexandrian-Jewish  ori- 
gin. It  seems  also  to  have  been  brought  back 
by  the  Jews  from  their  contact  with  the  Persians 
in  the  Babylonian  captivity.  Certainly  before  the 
advent  of  Christianity  it  was  the  common  belief 
of  the  nation,  except  among  the  sect  of  Sadducees. 
At  least  the  doctrine  of  the  "  resurrection  from 
the  dead  "  was  so. 

Probably  the  oldest  existing  record  of  man's 
faith  in  a  future  life  is  the  ancient  Egyptian  "  Book 
of  the  Dead,"  or  "  Funeral  Ritual."  Its  chapters 
are  found  inscribed  on  mummy-cases,  or  written 
upon  rolls  of  papyrus  within  them.  It  is  believed  to 
date  as  far  back  as  two  thousand  years  before  the 
Christian  era.  It  might  well  be  called  the  Book 
of  Life,  for  it  is  full  of  an  intense  vitality ;  and  this 
vivid  sense  of  life  shines  through  all  that  is  obscure, 
strange,  and  extravagant  in  its  details.  It  recounts 
the  experiences  of  the  human  soul  after  death  :  its 
passage  in  the  mystic  boat  through  the  land  of 
darkness  to  the  blessed  fields ;  its  trial  in  the  "  Hall 
of  the  Two  Truths  "  (or  the  "  twofold  judgment  ") 
before  Thoth,  the  Lord  of  Truth,  and  the  forty-two 
judges,  to  each  of  whom  it  declares  its  innocence 
of  the  offence  he  specially  sits  to  condemn ;  the 
placing  its  heart  in  the  balance  against  an  image 
of  Righteousness ;  the  declaration  of  its  innocence ; 


80  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

its  passage  through  the  initiatory  trials  to  the 
Blessed  Land  and  the  presence  of  the  god  Osiris, 
its  Father,  in  the  eternal  "  dwelling-place  of  the 
prepared  spirit."  I  quote  some  passages  from  this 
remarkable  book.  "  The  osiris  [that  is,  the  soul, 
taking  the  name  of  its  father-god]  lives  after  he 
dies.  Every  god  rejoices  with  life ;  the  osiris 
rejoices  with  life  as  they  rejoice."  "  Let  the  osiris 
go  ;  he  passes  from  the  gate,  he  sees  his  father, 
Osiris ;  he  makes  a  way  in  the  darkness  to  his 
father ;  he  is  his  beloved ;  he  has  come  to  see  his 
father ;  he  has  pierced  the  heart  of  Set  [the  Evil 
Spirit]  to  do  the  things  of  his  father,  Osiris ;  he  is 
the  son  beloved  of  his  father.  He  has  come  a  pre- 
pared spirit.  .  .  .  He  moves  as  the  never-resting 
gods  in  the  heavens.  .  .  .  The  osiris  says,  '  Hail 
Creator,  self-created,  do  not  turn  me  away,  I  am 
one  of  thy  types  on  earth.  ...  I  join  myself  with 
the  noble  spirits  of  the  wise  in  Hades.'  .  .  .  *  O 
ye  lords  of  truth,  I  have  brought  you  truth  ;  I  have 
not  privily  done  evil  against  any  man  ;  I  have  not 
been  idle ;  I  have  not  made  any  to  weep ;  I  have 
not  murdered  ;  I  have  not  defrauded  ;  I  have  not 
committed  adultery:  I  am  pure,  I  am  pure.'  .  .  . 
Let  the  osiris  go  ;  he  is  without  sin,  without  crime  ; 
he  lives  upon  truth  ;  he  has  made  his  delight  in 
doing  what  men  say  and  the  gods  wish ;  he  has 
given  food  to  the  hungry,  drink  to  the  thirsty, 
clothes  to  the  naked ;  his  mouth  is  pure,  his  hands 
are  pure.  .  .  .  His  heart  goes  to  its  place  in  the 
balance  complete.  .  .  .  The  Father  of  the  spirit 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.  81 

has  examined  and  proved  him.  He  has  found  that 
the  departed  fought  on  earth  the  battle  of  the 
good  gods,  as  his  Father  the  Lord  of  the  invisible 
world  had  commanded  him.  .  .  .  O  God,  the  pro- 
tector of  him  who  has  brought  his  cry  to  thee,  he 
is  thine,  let  him  have  no  harm  ;  let  him  be  as  one 
of  thy  flying  servants.  Thou  art  he,  he  is  thou ! 
Make  it  well  with  him  in  the  world  of  spirits  !  "  * 

In  the  Hindu  Vedas  we  find  also  the  faith  in 
immortality.  Yama,  the  god  of  the  dead  "  waited 
enthroned  in  immortal  light  to  welcome  the  good 
into  his  kingdom  of  joy.'*  There  were  "  the  homes 
he  had  gone  to  prepare  for  them,"  "  where  the  One 
Being  dwells  beyond  the  stars."2  "Where  there  is 
eternal  light,  in  that  immortal,  imperishable  world 
place  me,"  sings  a  Vedic  burial  hymn .  "  Where  the 
secret  place  of  heaven  is,  ...  where  life  is  free, 
.  .  .  where  joy  and  pleasure  abide,  where  the  desires 
of  our  desire  are  attained,there  make  me  immortal."  3 
"  Let  him  depart,"  says  another,  "  to  the  heroes 
who  have  laid  down  their  lives  for  others,  —  to  those 
who  have  bestowed  their  gifts  on  the  poor."  And 
in  the  later  Brahmanic  scripture,  the  "  Vishnu 
Purana,"  we  read,  "  He  who  speaks  wisely,  moder- 
ately, kindly,  goes  [after  death]  to  those  worlds 
which  are  the  inexhaustible  sources  of  happiness. 

1  See  Birch's  Translation  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead,"  in  Bun- 
sen's  "  Egypt's  Place,"  &c.,  Vol.  V. 

2  Rig    Veda,  X.     See    S.  Johnson's   Oriental   Religions;  India, 
p.  128. 

3  R.  V.  IX.  113,  7,  cited  in  M.  Miiller's  Chips,  I.  46. 

6 


82  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

He  who  is  intelligent,  modest,  devout,  who  rever- 
ences wisdom  and  respects  his  superiors  and  the 
aged,  goes  to  the  highest  heaven."  "  He  who 
feeds  himself,  and  neglects  the  poor  and  friendless 
stranger,  goes  to  hell." i  So  in  the  Bhagavad 
Gita :  "  There  is  another  invisible  eternal  exist- 
ence superior  to  this  visible  one,  which  does  not 
perish  when  all  things  perish.  Those  who  attain 
this  never  return.  This  is  my  supreme  abode."  2 

Buddhism  teaches  the  same  doctrine.  "  There 
is  undoubtedly  a  life  after  this,"  says  a  Buddhist 
tract,  "  in  which  the  virtuous  may  expect  the 
reward  of  their  good  deeds.  .  .  .  Wicked  men,  on 
the  contrary,  are  after  death  born  into  hell,  as 
animals.  If  they  have  done  any  good  deed  in 
their  lifetime,  they  are  after  a  long  time  released 
from  punishment,  and  born  into  the  world  again 
as  men.  If  they  abstain  from  evil,  and  do  good, 
they  may  reach  the  state  of  felicity,  a  place  full 
of  joy  and  delight.  Judgment  takes  place  imme- 
diately after  death."  3 

Beyond  all  the  heavens,  into  which  in  turn  the 
good  are  born  in  their  ascending  course,  Buddhism 
(as  well  as  Brahmanism)  presents  a  state  which  is 
the  object  of  all  devout  aspiration, —  the  final  reward 
of  the  highest  devotion  and  virtue.  It  is  called 
Nirvana.  Some  writers  have  insisted  that  it  means 
annihilation.  But  others,  equally  learned,  interpret 

1  Wilson's  Transl.  III.  121,  144. 

2  Thompson's  Transl.  p.  60. 

8  Uphaui's  Sacred  Books  of  Ceylon,  III.  158. 


UNITY  AND   UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  83 

it,  with  far  more  probability  as  it  appears  to  me, 
to  be  merely  the  end  of  the  soul's  transmigrations, 
the  cessation  of  re-births  into  the  pain  and  trouble 
of  this  world ;  not  annihilation,  but  perfect  rest, 
absolute  peace.1 

The  religion  of  Zoroaster  taught  to  the  Persians 
the  same  great  truth.  It  promised  to  all  who 
should  faithfully  keep  the  law  of  God,  in  purity  of 
thought,  speech,  and  act,  "  when  body  and  soul 
have  separated,  the  attainment  of  paradise  in  the 
next  world ;  "  while  the  disobedient  "  after  death 
will  have  no  part  in  paradise,  but  will  occupy  the 
place  of  darkness  destined  for  the  wicked."2 

In  Greece,  where  there  were  no  sacred  books, 
no  "  holy  scriptures "  as  such,  but  where  the 
poets  and  the  philosophers  were  the  religious 
teachers  of  the  people,  we  find  no  less  the  doctrine, 
and  the  popular  belief,  of  Immortality.  This  pop- 
ular belief,  founded  on  the  pictures  which  the 
poets'  fancy  had  painted,  is  familiar  to  all.  Hades, 
the  world  of  spirits ;  the  Judges,  Minos,  JEacus, 
and  Ilhadamanthus  ;  Tartarus,  the  abode  of  dark- 
ness and  punishment ;  the  Elysian  fields,  blooming 
with  asphodel,  radiant  with  perpetual  sunshine, 
where  parted  friends  meet  again,  "  where  life  is 
ever  sweet,  and  sorrow  is  not,  nor  winter,  nor  any 
rain  or  storm."  Sophocles  puts  into  the  mouth  of 

1  See  S.  Johnson's  Oriental  Religions,  p.  619;  and  M.  Miiller's 
Introduction  to  liis  translation  of  the  Dhammapada. 

2  Aifsta :  Spiegel,  I.  171 ;  cited  by  Alger,  Doctrine  of  Future 
Life,  p.  Io6. 


84  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  dying  Antigone  the  strongly  cherished  hope 
that  she  should  be  welcomed  by  her  father,  her 
mother,  her  brother,  in  that  other  world.1  In  Pindar 
we  read,  "  An  honorable  and  virtuous  man  may 
rest  assured  as  to  his  future  fate.  The  souls  of 
the  lawless  departing  this  life  suffer  punishment. 
But  the  good  lead  a  life  without  a  tear,  among 
those  honored  by  the  gods  for  having  always  de- 
lighted in  virtue."  2  One  of  the  golden  verses  of 
Pythagoras  is  this :  "  When  thou  shalt  have  laid 
,  aside  thy  body,  thou  shalt  rise  freed  from  mortality, 
and  become  a  god  of  the  kindly  skies  ;  "  as  we 
should  say,  "  an  angel."  "  Those  who  have  lived 
in  justice  and  piety,"  says  Plutarch,  "  fear  nothing 
after  death.  They  look  for  a  divine  felicity.  As 
they  who  run  a  race  are  not  crowned  till  they  have 
conquered,  so  good  men  believe  that  the  reward 
of  virtue  is  not  given  them  till  after  death.  Eager 
to  flee  away  from  the  body  and  from  the  world  to 
a  glorious  and  blessed  abode,  they  free  their 
thoughts  as  much  as  in  them  lies  from  the  things 
that  perish."  And  again:  "Not  by  lamentations 
and  mournful  chants  ought  we  to  celebrate  the 
funeral  of  the  good  man,  but  by  hymns ;  for,  in 
ceasing  to  be  numbered  with  mortals,  he  enters 
upon  the  heritage  of  a  diviner  life."3 

For  the  thoughts  of  Plato  upon  this  question, 
we  turn  of  course  to  his  famed  book,  "  Phaedon." 
Under  the  form  of  a  report  of  the  conversation  of 

1  Antiyone,  897.  *  Second  Olympic,  cited  by  Alger. 

»  Cited  by  Denis,  II.  225,  263. 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  85 

Socrates  with  his  disciples  just  before  his  death, 
he  gives  his  Master's  ideas,  or  his  own,  upon  the 
immortality  and  future  state  of  the  soul,  with  the 
arguments  by  which  the  conclusions  are  reached. 
These  arguments,  long,  curious,  and  elaborate,  can 
have  little  weight  with  us ;  but  the  conclusions  are 
definite  and  plain.  As  a  thoughtful  and  conserva- 
tive writer  has  well  said,  "  The  reasoning  of 
Socrates  in  favor  of  immortality  is  far  from  clear, 
but  not  so  his  faith  in  immortality  itself."  l  We 
find  accordingly  such  sentences  as  these  :  — 

"  Can  the  soul  which  is  invisible,  and  which  goes 
to  a  place  like  itself  excellent,  pure,  invisible,  — to 
the  presence  of  a  good  and  wise  God  (whither,  if 
God  will,  my  soul  also  must  shortly  go)  —  can  this 
soul  of  ours,  being  of  such  a  nature,  when  separated 
from  the  body  be  immediately  dispersed  and  de- 
stroyed, as  the  many  assert?  Far  from  it." 
"  When,  therefore,  death  approaches  a  man,  the 
mortal  part  of  him,  as  it  appears,  dies ;  but  the 
immortal  departs  safe  and  uncorruptible,  having 
withdrawn  itself  from  death."  "  The  soul,  there- 
fore, is  most  certainly  immortal  and  imperishable, 
and  our  souls  really  exist  in  the  world  of  spirits." 
"  Those  who  shall  have  sufficiently  purified  them- 
selves by  philosophy  [religion],  shall  live  without 
their  bodies,  received  into  more  beautiful  mansions." 
After  a  long  and  minute  description  of  the  circum- 
stances and  scenery  of  the  future  state,  he  adds  : 

1  I.  Nichols :  Hours  with  Evangelists,  p.  90. 


86  FREEDOM   AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

"  To  affirm  positively  that  these  things  are  exactly 
as  I  have  described  them  does  not  become  a  man 
of  sense  ;  that,  however,  either  this  or  something 
of  the  kind  takes  place  with  respect  to  our  souls 
and  their  habitations,  this  appears  to  me  to  be 
most  fitting  to  be  believed,  since  the  soul  is  evi- 
dently immortal."  "  For  the  sake  of  these  things 
we  should  use  every  endeavor  to  acquire  virtue 
and  wisdom  in  this  life  ;  for  the  reward  is  noble 
and  the  hope  is  great."  "  A  man  ought,  then,  to 
have  confidence  about  his  soul,  if  during  this  life 
he  has  made  it  beautiful  with  temperance,  justice, 
fortitude,  freedom,  and  truth ;  he  waits  for  his 
entrance  into  the  world  of  spirits  as  one  who  is 
ready  to  depart  when  destiny  calls."  "  I  shall 
not  remain,  I  shall  depart.  Do  not  say,  then,  that 
Socrates  is  buried  ;  say  that  you  bury  my  body." 

Cicero  tells  us  that  the  Stoics  believed  in  a  con- 
tinued life  after  death,  but  not  in  an  endless  immor- 
tality. His  own  faith  has  been  thought  to  have 
been  variable,  or  at  least  his  expression  of  it ;  though 
I  think  that  with  him,  as  with  Plato,  the  "  if"  is 
often  of  argumentation  and  not  of  doubt ;  and,  with 
Lecky,  I  find  in  his  writings  "  a  firm  and  constant 
reference  to  the  immortalit}^  of  the  soul."  "  As  an 
eternal  God,"  he  says  "  moves  the  mortal  world, 
so  an  immortal  soul  moves  our  frail  body." l 
And,  again,  "  the  origin  of  souls  cannot  be  found 
Upon  this  earth,  for  there  is  nothing  earthly  in 

1  Somnium  Scip. 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.  87 

them.  They  have  faculties  which  claim  to  be 
called  divine,  and  which  can  never  be  shown  to 
have  come  to  man  from  any  source  but  God.  That 
nature  in  us  which  thinks,  which  knows,  which 
lives,  is  celestial,  and  for  that  reason  necessarily 
eternal.  God  himself  can  be  represented  only  as 
a  free  Spirit,  separate  from  matter,  seeing  all  things, 
and  moving  all  things,  himself  ceaselessly  working. 
Of  this  kind,  from  this  nature,  is  the  human  soul." 
"  Although  you  do  not  see  the  soul  of  man,  as  you 
do  not  see  God  ;  yet,  as  from  his  works  you  ac- 
knowledge Him,  so  from  memory,  from  invention,  ,/ 
from  all  the  beauty  of  virtue,  do  tliou  acknowledge 
the  divine  nature  of  the  soul.  'It  cannot  be  de- 
stroyed." 1  He  represents  the  aged  Cato  as 
exclaiming,  "  O  glorious  day  when  I  shall  remove 
from  this  confused  crowd  to  join  the  divine  assem- 
bly of  souls  !  For  I  shall  go  to  meet  not  only  those 
great  men  of  whom  I  have  spoken,  but  my  own 
son  Cato,  for  whom  I  have  performed  the  funeral 
rites,  which  he  should  rather  have  rendered  to  me. 
His  spirit  has  never  deserted  me ;  but  departed, 
looking  back  upon  me,  to  that  place  whither  he 
knew  that  I  should  soon  come.  If  I  have  borne 
his  loss  with  courage,  it  is  not  that  my  heart  was 
unfeeling ;  but  I  consoled  myself  with  the  thought 
that  our  separation  would  not  be  for  long."  2  With 
these  words  of  undying  affection  and  faith,  I  bring 
my  quotations  to  a  close. 

1  Tusc.  Quaest.  1.  2  Cato  Major. 


88  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 


How  beautifully  sound  these  consenting  voices 
from  East  to  West,  from  century  to  century,  utter- 
ing the  great  Beliefs  of  the  human  race.  Into 
what  a  "  large  place  "  they  summon  us  out  of  all 
narrow  limits  of  sect  and  church,  even  beyond 
Christianity  itself,  into  that  great  and  universal 
Church  of  the  race,  whose  unity  is  the  unity  of  the 
spirit,  whose  fellowship  is  the  brotherhood  of  great 
faiths,  sacred  principles,  and  spiritual  ideas.  One 
Truth,  one  Right,  one  Love,  one  immortal  Faith : 
the  Reason,  the  Conscience,  the  Heart  of  man,  in 
all  times  and  under  all  skies,  essentially  identical: 
and  over  all  one  'God  and  Father  of  all,  giving  to 
all  his  inspiration  and  his  revelations  as  they  are 
able  to  receive ! 

The  passages  that  I  have  gathered  into  this 
paper  are  but  a  scanty  gleaning  from  a  broad  and 
rich  field.  Of  course,  a  good  deal  of  a  less  interest- 
ing, less  elevated,  even  opposite,  character  may  be 
gathered  from  the  like  sources.  But  its  existence 
does  not  invalidate  what  I  have  presented.  I  have 
made  no  claim  for  entire  uniformity,  but  only  for 
virtual  universality,  in  the  great  ideas.  I  do  not 
say  that  every  man  has  believed,  but  that  among 
all  peoples,  and  in  all  times  of  which  we  have  ac- 
count, these  beliefs  have  existed  ;  that  they  per- 
petually recur,  indicating  a  natural  gravitation  of 
the  human  mind  toward  them  ;  that  they  are  the 
common  property  of  the  human  race,  and  not  the 
exclusive  possession  of  any  special  people  or  re- 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,   ETC.  89 

ligion.  The  soul  of  man,  human  nature,  bears 
these  ideas  and  sentiments  of  God,  of  Right,  of 
Love,  and  of  Immortality  as  certainly,  as  naturally, 
as  generally,  as  the  earth  under  all  climes  produces 
plants  and  trees.  Superficial  variations,  of  place, 
climate,  race,  culture,  we  find :  essential  unity  of 
idea. 

We  have  been  reading  some  verses  from  the 
Scriptures  of  the  Universal  Church,  —  man  in  his: 
religious  relations.  This  is  the  Broad  Church,  which 
not  only  stretches  be}Tond  barriers  of  sects,  Roman- 
ist or  Protestant,  but  reaches  as  wide  as  the  world 
of  man.  It  is  as  ancient  as  it  is  broad.  It  has  a 
Past  which  far  antedates  that  from  which  we  are 
so  frequently  warned  or  entreated  not  to  sever 
ourselves.  Its  antiquity  does  not  stop  with  Judea 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  but  reaches  centuries 
beyond.  This  is  the  birthright  Church  of  man. 
It  is  founded  on  the  rock  of  man's  spiritual  nature, 
"  normally  and  for  ever  God's  Revealer."  Its  com- 
mon thought  is  in  that  ground-idea  of  God  which 
lies  back  of  all  the  various  conceptions  of  God. 
Its  common  life  is  in  that  mysterious  disposition, 
that  native  and  irrepressible  tendency  toward  the 
invisible  and  the  infinite,  that  universal  sentiment 
of  reverence  and  of  dependence  upon  a  superior 
Power,  Goodness,  and  Right,  which  make  man  to 
be,  by  force  of  his  nature,  in  all  time  and  place,  a 
religious  being.  Overarching  all,  like  the  universal 
sky,  encompassing  and  inspiring  all,  like  the  uni- 


90  FREEDOM.  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

versal  air,  vitalizing  and  informing  all,  like  the 
universal  electric  force,  binding  and  drawing  all 
like  the  universal  attraction  and  gravitation,  this 
idea  of  God,  of  his  love  and  his  law,  this  religious 
consciousness,  unites  earth's  millions  in  the  humili- 
ties and  aspirations  of  prayer  ;  it  moves  them  to 
deeds  of  benevolence  and  justice ;  it  charms  them 
ever  with  the  ideal  of  a  better  world,  a  perfected 
societ}7-,  a  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth,  a  heaven  of 
immortality  beyond.  It  creates  always  its  prophets 
and  preachers,  men  of  keener  conscience,  intenser 
enthusiasm  for  truth  and  right;  always  its  saints, 
men  of  tenderer  piety,  deeper  inward  life,  pro- 
founder  spirituality ;  always  its  reformers  seeking 
to  awaken  men  from  dead  forms  to  living  faith  and 
righteousness ;  always  its  martyrs  bearing  the  re- 
proach of  truth  and  the  cross  of  suffering  humanity  ; 
always  its  heretics  questioning  all  traditions,  de- 
manding light  and  liberty ;  always  its  radicals 
protesting  against  superstitions  and  mythologies, 
and  breaking  down  idols.  "  Before  these  vast  facts 
of  God  and  Providence,"  says  an  English  writer, 
"  the  difference  between  man  and  man  dwarfs  into 
nothing.  These  are  no  discoveries  of  our  own 
wi&i  which  we  can  meddle,  but  revelations  of  the 
Infinite,  which,  like  the  sunlight,  shed  themselves 
on  all  people  alike,  wise  and  unwise,  good  or  evil ; 
and  they  claim  and  permit  no  other  acknowledg- 
ment from  us  than  the  simple  obedience  of  our 
lives  and  the  plainest  confession  of  our  lips." 


UNITY  AND    UNIVERSALITY,  ETC.  91 

Religious  is  a  higher  and  broader  word  than 
Christian;  and  so  is  human.  Jewish,  Brahman,  Bud- 
dhist, Parsee,  Mohammedan,  these,  too,  are  churches 
of  the  One  Living  God,  the  Father  of  all.  With 
advancing  light,  thoughtful  men  in  all  of  them  will 
come  out  of  what  is  peculiar  and  special  in  each, 
and  so  local  and  temporary,  into  the  broad  ground 
of  universal,  spiritual  religion,  which  is  Piety, 
Righteousness,  Humanity :  that  belief  in  God  and 
in  man  which  is  the  creed  of  all  creeds. 

If  ever  in  the  isolation  of  our  individualism  we 
are  ready  to  envy  the  churchman  his  sense  of 
membership  in  a  great  body  of  brave  and  conse- 
crated men  and  women,  whose  lips  have  uttered 
for  centuries  the  same  sacramental  words,  then 
may  the  better  thought  come  to  us,  that  we  are 
indeed,  if  we  will,  members  of  this  and  of  a  yet 
grander  company,  from  whom  the  churchman  cuts 
himself  off.  For  he,  after  all,  is  the  schismatic. 
Look  beneath  names  and  words,  and  feel  the  life  of 
the  invisible,  spiritual  host  of  all  righteous,  true, 
heroic,  saintly  souls,  made  ours,  if  we  are  in  sympa- 
thy with  them,  not  by  any  external  organization, 
but  by  a  spiritual  law.  Its  sacramental  words  are 
God,  Duty,  Love,  Immortality.  These,  written 
in  many  tongues  upon  its  banner,  have  given  vigor 
to  more  hearts  and  met  more  eyes  lifted  unfaltering 
in  death,  than  any  one  church  or  one  religion  can 
count  within  its  pale.  This  is  the  Eternal  Gospel ; 
this  the  true  Church  Catholic :  the  Church  not  of 


92  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Rome,  nor  of  England ;  the  Church  not  of  Bud- 
dha, nor  of  Moses,  nor  of  Christ ;  but  of  God  and 
Man. 

NOTE. 

I  have  not  introduced  any  quotations  from  the  Jewish  or 
Christian  Scriptures,  because  they  are  familiar,  and  in  all 
hands. 

For  the  reader's  convenience  I  append  a  few  dates,  as  they 
are  given  in  the  books ;  some  of  them  approximative :  — 

Before  the  Christian  era:  —  The  Book  of  the  Dead,  2000; 
The  Rig  Veda,  1500;  Homeric  Poems,  900 ;  Thales  born,  640; 
Lao-tze,  604;  Zoroaster,  589;  Pythagoras,  580;  Confucius, 
550.  Gotama  (Buddha)  d.  548;  Xenophanes  b.  540;  Pindar, 
518;  Sophocles,  -495;  Socrates,  470;  Plato,  430;  Menander, 
342;  Zeno,  300;  Cicero,  106;  Virgil,  70;  Horace,  65;  Ovid, 
43;  Philo,  27.  Within  the  Christian  era:  —  Seneca.  3;  Quin- 
tilian,  40;  Plutarch,  50;  Epictetus,  70;  Marcus  Aurelius, 
121 ;  Maximus  Tyrius,  180.  The  Talmud  \vas  composed  in 
its  present  form  in  the  fifth  century,  but  from  ancient  mate- 
rials. The  Vishnu  Parana  was  compiled  in  the  tenth  century, 
also  out  of  ancient  materials,  as  its  name  indicates. 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  93 


FREEDOM   IN  RELIGION. 
BY  SAMUEL  JOHNSON. 

TF,  as  certain  modern  schools  predict,  Religion  is 
•*-  soon  to  be  wholly  supplanted  by  Science,  that 
fate  will  have  become  possible  only  through  its 
previous  conviction  upon  the  charge  of  suppressing 
the  just  liberties  of  man.  By  no  axe  less  penetrat- 
ing than  such  condemnation  can  a  root  so  deeply 
set  in  human  history  be  severed.  The  sharp  edge 
of  one  inquisition  no  height  nor  depth  can  now 
escape.  For  all  claims,  one  test  and  one  title  are 
now  indispensable  :  and  these  we  indicate,  when, 
with  a  thrill,  of  which  the  mystery  of  the  ocean 
wires  is  but  a  symbol,  we  pronounce  the  word 
Freedom. 

Of  the  fact,  which  will  not  by  my  present  hear- 
ers be  disputed,  is  not  this  the  meaning?  Man 
has  become  mature  enough  to  know  that  he  at 
least  is  real,  and  his  experience  valid ;  that  his 
seeing  is  by  his  own  eyes,  and  that  he  is  concerned 
only  with  what  for  Mm  is  true  and  just  and  good, 
and  for  his  powers  the  natural  culture.  All  way- 
marks  of  history  point  to  this  emancipation,  as  his 
real  goal. 

Note,  for  instance,  the  ever-renewed  escape  from 
spiritual  swathes  woven  of  Fate  and  Godhead,  into 


94  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

freer  play  of  the  living  Human  Form.  It  is  the 
rhythm  of  history.  Asiatic  devotions  issue  in  the 
Buddha,  or  Man  throned  above  the  Gods  ;  Chris- 
tianity in  identifying  God  with  a  Man ;  Homer  and 
Hesiod  in  the  human  art  of  Phidias,  the  human 
dignity  of  Socrates.  Confucius,  summing  up  the 
lessons  of  Chinese  experience,  learned  "  to  speak 
of  man,  not  of  God,"  and  placed  the  foundations  of 
virtue  in  original  human  nature.  Of  modern  phi- 
losophy the  doors  are  Kant  and  Hegel :  analysis  of 
the  human  faculties  as  determinative  of  all  knowl- 
edge, duty,  faith.  And  modern  sentiment  has  added 
to  the  practical  maxim  of  Terence,  "  Nothing  hu- 
man but  is  of  import  to  me,"  the  largest  ideal 
reading  of  Feuerbach's  impressive  sentence,  "  God 
is  an  unutterable  sigh  out  of  the  depths  of  the 
human  heart."  Steadily,  on  every  historic  line, 
proceeds  that  imperial  justification  of  the  thinking 
faculty,  which  is  the  condition  of  all  respect  for 
the  objects  of  thought ;  the  high  recognition  that 
man  is  himself  consubstantial  with  whatever  he 
knows,  or- loves,  or  adores. 

The  profound  significance  of  the  word  Freedom 
for  our  age  lies  in  the  full  consciousness,  by  mind, 
of  its  own  essential  validity.  For  nothing  can  this 
postulate  of  all  future  knowledge  be  bartered.  To 
no  tradition  in  the  name  of  God,  to  no  science  in 
the  name  of  Nature,  will  it  be  surrendered.  Not 
though  the  new  heavens  fall,  as  the  old  hells  are 
burning  out,  will  man  dispense  with  faith  in  his 
personality  and  its  freedom. 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  95 

The  new  heavens  of  science  are  Evolution,  and 
not  likely  to  fall  by  any  such  alternative.  An  inher- 
ent law  of  development,  reaching  up  through  all 
grades  of  existence,  to  receive  its  highest  form  in 
man,  —  so  fully  certifies  growth  and  progress,  that 
Evolution  may  well  be  recognized  as  the  scientific 
equivalent  to  the  principle  of  Spiritual  Freedom. 
But  this  recognition  is  not  founded  on  the  mere 
fact  that  evolution  is  ascension  of  forms :  it  depends 
on  the  way  in  which  such  ascension  is  interpreted. 
Pure  outgrowth  of  higher  stages  from  lower  ones 
would  imply  that  the  origin  of  power  is  found  in 
the  crudest  forms ;  which  is  essential  fetichism, 
and  inverts  the  dignity  of  mind.  That  the  inter- 
ests of  evolution  can  be  identified  with  those  of 
freedom  is  due  to  the  fact  that  this  scientific  prin- 
ciple itself  involves,  as  the  condition  of  its  ascend- 
ing line  of  outgrowths,  transcendent  resources  of 
universal  Mind,  by  whose  constant  implication 
these  finite  growths  are  made  possible,  and  whose 
descent  is  their  inspiration  and  emancipation. 

Neither  to  the  ascent,  nor  to  the  influx  which 
conditions  it,  does  the  mature  demand  of  freedom 
in  our  day  admit  any  ultimate  limit.  This  better 
shaping  of  human  circumstance,  this  secular  march 
over  the  falling  redoubts  of  superstition,  this  end- 
less invitation  to  every  human  need  to  stand  forth 
and  be  heard,  this  growing  ideal  of  social  order, 
quickening  the  sense  of  actual  depravity  and  defect, 
and  the  absolute  confidence  of  this  assault  on  every 
form  of  bondage,  —  is  manifestly  an  appeal  to 


96  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

something  of  larger  meaning  than  such  terms  as 
*'  evolution  "  or  "  emancipation  "  are  wont  to  sug- 
gest. It  proves  a  constant  sense  of  the  Infinite. 
The  languages  of  the  highest  civilizations  express 
their  future  tense  either  by  the  infinitive,  or  by 
some  combination  with  it.  The  very  limits  within 
which  we  find  that  progress  must  move,  are  but 
the  stimulus  to  an  unlimited  aspiration,  which 
delights  in  ascribing  to  natural  law  itself  every 
attribute  of  ideal  mind. 

Just  here  is  my  reason  for  believing  that  relig- 
ion will  not  die  at  the  hands  of  science.  Freedom, 
the  principle  not  of  science  only,  but  of  all  culture, 
rests  on  man's  recognition  of  infinity  as  implicated 
in  his  own  finite  conditions.  In  other  words, 
Freedom  means  religion,  and  Religion  means  free- 
dom. If  you  tell  me  that  religion  must  last  for 
ever,  because  it  is  "  revelation,"  or  because  it  is 
"  supernatural,"  or  because  it  is  "  the  endless  need 
of  sinful  man,"  —  your  logic  is  a  sieve  ;  my  doubts 
run  through  it.  What  is  supernatural  ?  What  is 
not  revelation  ?  What  proof  that  sirifulness  is 
endless,  or  that  religion  is  to  stand  or  fall  with 
that  ?  But  I  can  see  that  religion  is  imperishable, 
if  it  is  essential  to  development  and  progress.  I 
can  see  that  this  substance  of  spiritual  endeavor 
cannot  be  illusory  or  self-destructive,  —  if  it  is  the 
basis  and  condition  of  Human  Freedom. 

Comprehensively  to  define  what  I  hold  to  be  the 
meaning  of  this  profound  relation,  is  the  task  to 
which  I  am  now  invited. 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  97 

DEFINITIONS. 

The  question  what  is  to  become  of  religion 
being  now  uppermost,  restatements  of  what  relig- 
ion means  are  the  order  of  the  day.  Is  it  not  the 
fine  discipline  of  your  platform  to  learn  to  con- 
struct and  apply  them  ?  Of  spiritual  facts,  indeed, 
no  definitions  can  do  more  than  state  relations  with 
clearness,  since  the  related  terms  must,  by  their 
very  nature  and  their  inherence  in  the  infinite, 
remain  ill-defined.  Were  it  not  so,  they  would 
not  permit  the  very  freedom  they  claim  to  express. 
Hence  the  great  number  of  such  definitions  now 
in  the  field ;  we  are  not  discouraged  to  find  that 
no  one  is  quite  satisfied  with  his  neighbor's 
attempt.  It  is  not  easy,  perhaps  it  is  not  possible, 
so  to  define,  that  nothing  which  belongs  to  the 
universality  of  the  idea  shall  be  shut  out,  nothing 
ignored,  nothing  left  to  loose  inference,  or  to  a 
merely  charitable  construction.  Even  if  we  define 
religion  broadly  as  "  the  effort  of  man  for  self- 
perfection,  or  for  endless  growth,"  we  may  seem 
to  others  to  exclude,  as  non-essential  to  the  process 
defined,  the  real  existence  and  inspiration  of  the 
Perfect  itself,  without  which  such  effort  on  man's 
part,  or  even  the  idea  of  making  it,  is  to  most  of 
us  inexplicable,  and  which  therefore  demands  dis- 
tinct recognition.  One  of  the  poles  on  which  the 
movement  turns  seems  to  be  wanting  to  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  formula. 

In  the  opposite  statement,  that  "  religion  is  the 
7 


S8  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

supernatural  action  of  divine  grace  in  man,"  — 
there  is,  manifestly,  wanting  what  should  be 
allowed  as  the  natural  pole  of  the  spiritual  pro- 
cess, even  by  those  who  believe  "  the  supernatural " 
to  be  real  and  divine. 

Again  :  two  mutually  exclusive  conceptions 
have  arisen  respectively  in  the  East  and  the  West : 
the  one  defining  religion  as  "man's  sense  of  his 
own  nothingness  before  God,"  —  which  excludes 
man  from  the  right  to  have  any  sense  at  all,  and 
even  leaves  him  altogether  out  of  the  process  ;  the 
other  as  the  "  worship  of  humanity,"  which  ex- 
cludes such  a  thing  as  worship  by  humanity,  and 
leaves  no  term  in  the  process  except  man.  Subject  to 
like  mutual  criticism  are  the  old  mystic  absorption 
in  abstract  impersonal  essence,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  our  modern  idolatry  of  personal  will  and  defi- 
nite works,  on  the  other.  So,  in  general,  a  spon- 
taneity without  moral  allegiance  would  seem  to  be 
the  Celtic  onesidedness  ;  moralism  without  spon- 
taneity, the  Teutonic.  Even  the  "  Love  of  God 
and  Man,"  the  "  Golden  Rule,"  the  Christian 
Beatitudes,  fail  of  completeness,  by  not  distinctly 
recognizing  the  intellectual  nature  :  whence  in  part 
their  degeneracy 'in  to  the  petty  sentimentalism  of 
the  pulpit,  and  the  unphilosophical  narrowness  of 
the  creeds.  The  full  idea  of  Religion  is  not  satis- 
fied by  these  unipolar  elements  :  they  offer  no  ade- 
quate basis  for  its  definition. 

Then  we  have  religion  represented  organically, 
as  a  supreme  sphere,  centring  in  Jesus  Christ, 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  99 

with  circumference  in  Bible  and  Church,  and  in 
various  limits  and  monopolies  of  Christian  origin ; 
and  again,  personally,  as  a  sense  of  absolute  self- 
condemnation,  followed  by  a  sense,  through  Christ's 
merits  alone,  of  supreme  self-gratulation,  and  by 
the  fullest  real  security  :  —  of  all  which  the  exclu- 
siveness  would  not  be  easy  to  overstate. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  must  remember  that  the 
purport  of  terms  is  open  to  such  latitude,  by  rea- 
son of  the  mutual  involution  of  ideas  in  modern 
thought,  that  the  definer's  intention  must  often  be 
read  between  the  lines.  Thus  the  word  "  Man  " 
may  be  meant  to  cover  the  infinite  as  well  as  the 
finite  relations  of  man ;  and  the  word  "  God  "  to 
embrace  a  divine  humanity  and  a  natural  order,  as 
manifestations  of  God.  And  as  by  "  man's  effort 
to  perfect  himself"  may  be  intended  "  man's  effort 
at  development,  as  moved  by  his  relations  with  the 
Perfect:"  so  by  "the  supernatural''  in  divine 
power,  may  sometimes  be  indicated,  not  exclusion 
of  deity  from  nature,  physical  or  human,  but 
simply  that  of  these,  its  two  spheres,  the  human, 
with  which  religion  is  concerned,  is  .  the  higher. 
Our  criticism  goes  to  the  form  of  statements,  not 
to  what  may  be  meant  by  them. 

Such  margin  for  interpretation  often  becomes 
due,  if  we  would  read  old  or  new  definitions  of 
religion  as  they  stand  in  the  minds  of  their  advo- 
cates. And  all  the  more  manifestly  is  there  need 
of  stating,  or  unmistakably  implying,  all  elements 
which  are  essential  to  the  idea  of  Religion ;  there 


100  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

being  in  strict  usage  of  terms  no  authority  for  such 
larger  inferential  construction  as  I  have  ventured 
to  give,  for  instance,  to  certain  definitions,  nor 
assurance  that  it  would  not  sometimes  be  declined 
as  injustice. 

Surely  this  demand  for  completeness  is  enhanced 
by  the  fact  that  we  are  seeking  to  define  Religion 
so  as  to  express  its  identity  with  Freedom. 

Shall  we  then,  after  these  premises,  venture  to 
attempt  it  ?  Shall  I  offer  the  statement  that 
religion  is  the  natural  attraction  of  mind  as  finite 
to  mind  as  infinite  f 

Observe  that  I  use  this  word  mind  in  no  narrow 
sense,  as  of  the  intellect  in  distinction  from  the 
emotions  or  the  volitions  ;  but  in  the  full  sense  of 
intelligence,  with  whatever  of  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious, scrutable  or  inscrutable,  can  be  included 
therein. 

Observe,  next,  that  the  statement  does  not,  as  is 
usual  to  do,  speak  of  God  in  distinction  from  Man. 
Nor  does  it  enter  on  what  seems  to  me  the  fatally 
exclusive  analytical  process  of  determining  how  far 
either  of  the  terms  may  or  may  not  involve  the 
other.  At  what  point  in  the  growth  of  any 
thought,  purpose,  or  desire,  at  what  dividing  line, 
or  suture,  of  the  living  personality  of  man,  one  may 
say  that  God's  work  begins  or  man's  work  ends,  — 
is  to  me  past  all  conceiving,  or  even  attempting  to 
conceive.  I  have  no  diagnosis  on  that  matter, 
initial  as  it  is  for  the  creeds.  Mind  shows  me  no 
such  suture.  Mind  is  one  essence :  call  it  divine 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  101 

or  human,  it  cannot  be  cut  off  from  itself;  what  it 
knows  is  but  that  which  itself  is.  I  do  not  there- 
fore find  religion  definable  by  any  distinction  of 
Man  from  God,  but  call  it  the  natural  attraction 
of  mind  in  its  finiteness  to  mind  in  its  infinitude. 
It  is  such  attraction,  whether  as  sentiment,  con- 
viction, or  conduct,  whether  as  aspiration  or  in- 
spiration, whether  as  struggle,  or  solace,  or  heavenly 
peace,  or  mastering  faith,  —  that  we  really  mean, 
when  we  speak  of  religion.  It  is  a  sense  of  inmost 
identity  with  that  absolute  adequacy  and  boundless 
resource  to  which  our  actual  limits  are  drawn. 
This  is  no  arbitrary  interpretation.  We  worship 
Wisdom,  Justice,  Love,  —  not  as  mere  outward- 
ness, but  as  our  best  and  highest ;  as  our  liberty, 
our  infinity :  neither  within  us,  nor  without ;  but  as 
somewhat  eternally  real,  belonging  to  us,  as  we  do 
to  it,  more  than  to  our  actual  or  provisional  selves. 
The  very  dread  of  an  outside  God,  and  the  agoniz- 
ing sense  of  separation  from  him,  which  has  made 
up  so  much  of  what  is  popularly  known  as  re- 
ligion,—  intimates,  however  crudely,  that  a  total 
alienation  of  finite  and  infinite  would  be  nothing 
less  than  sundering  our  own  spiritual  substance. 
The  notion  of  eternal  punishment  itself  shows  with 
what  horror  man  regards  so  monstrous  an  irration- 
ality ;  his  utmost  fears  having  conceived  it  as  the 
very  last  consequence  of  sin,  and  the  maximum  of 
penalty.  On  the  other  hand,  our  advancing  ideals 
of  truth  and  virtue  are  announcements  of  the 
Infinite  ;  and  in  our  aspiration  we  simply  follow 


102      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

its  full  assurance  of  freedom  to  the  assumption  of 
our  higher  selves. 

Prayer,  indeed,  clothes  itself  in  the  form  of  out- 
ward appeal,  of  personal  ascription ;  but  the 
spiritual  sense  clearly  perceives  this  dress  to  be 
simply  a  form  of  mythology,  required  by  the 
inadequacy  of  human  speech  and  by  the  natural 
play  of  the  imagination.  As  form  of  public  worship, 
it  is  sustained  only  by  the  sense  of  a  common 
understanding  of  those  two  justifying  facts,  as  by 
an  atmosphere  of  consent,  and  ceases  when  the 
critical  faculty  is  felt  to  be  analyzing  and  dissolving 
this.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  so  far  from  implying 
essential  distinction  of  the  soul  from  deity,  that  its 
very  confidence  in  that  adequacy  which  the  terms 
do  not  express,  can  mean  only  the  precise  contrary. 

That  finiteness  in  man  is  thus  invincibly  attracted 
to  the  clear  open  heavens  of  the  ideal  in  all  real 
progress,  —  is  its  confession  that  the  Infinite  is  not  its 
mere  negation,  but  the  very  motive  force  of  its  own 
proper  growth.  The  Infinite  is  not  the  less  real, 
because  inconceivable  :  being  known  to  us  not  at 
all  as  a  definite  object,  —  any  more  than  space  is  so 
to  the  open  eye  or  to  the  free  wing  that  traverses 
it,  —  but  in  and  through  the  sense  of  an  open  path, 
and  an  unprescribed  scope  ;  of  spiritual  space,  not 
barred  nor  walled  in,  nor  anywhere  to  fail  us  at 
last :  —  a  sense,  the  condition  whereof  in  us  is  the 
pursuit  of  ideal  good.  This  is  the  secret  whispered 
to  us  by  principle,  loyalty,  pure  devotion  and  faith, 
in  whatever  sphere ;  and  the  practicalism  that 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  103 

treats  it  as  mere  phrase  is  about  as  practical  as  the 
insect's  heady  rush  by  twilight  against  the  window 
or  into  the  flame. 

The  Infinite  then  is  the  motive  power  of  our 
personal  growth.  Not  that  there  is  always  con- 
sciousness of  this  oneness  or  this  freedom.  Your 
service  of  your  ideal  is  a  battle,  sore  defeat  and 
hard  recovery  :  bitter  sense  of  impotence  to  do 
what  it  would  be  more  sad  or  cruel  still  to  have 
failed  of  doing.  But  fast  beside  all  brave  and  true 
hearts  stands  the  mystic  prompter,  with  secret 
touches  that  mean  all  the  prophecy  one  may  not 
for  the  moment  hear. 

As  now  defined,  Religion  is  in  three  ways  the 
principle  of  Freedom. 

First,  It  includes  both  elements  in  the  process  of 
personal  growth,  as  pursuit  of  ideal  aims.  It  is 
the  relation  of  finite  to  infinite,  as  real  poles  of 
spiritual  movement,  implied  and  involved  in  each 
other. 

Second,  It  is  inclusive  of  every  faculty  of  actual 
mind :  all  of  these  alike  being  called  "  finite,"  not 
in  view  of  their  limitations  merely,  but  also  of  their 
law  of  growth  by  an  endless  upward  attraction ;  in 
other  words,  they  inhere  in  the  Infinite. 

Third,  It  is  the  natural  movement  of  these 
faculties :  the  attraction  implies  identity  of  essence 
in  its  terms,  since  we  can  aspire  only  to  that  of 
which  we  have  guarantee  and  foretype  in  our  own 
nature. 


104  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Here,  then,  are  three  facts  in  the  attraction  we 
have  called  Religion  :  unity  in  the  elements  of  it ; 
universality  in  the  scope  ;  gravitation  by  inherent 
affinity. 

Now  of  these  three,  observe,  that  to  make  use 
of  religion  as  a  means  of  shutting  off  the  infinite 
from  the  finite  by  a  great  gulf,  is  to  deny  the  first ; 
to  confine  religion  to  a  special  sphere  or  to  certain 
functions,  is  to  reject  the  second  ;  to  divorce  religion 
from  nature  and  spontaneity,  by  fetching  it  into 
man  by  importation,  by  graft,  by  compulsion 
through  miracle,  proceeding  from  a  nature  alien  to 
its  own  essence,  is  to  make  void  the  third.  And 
are  not  these  three  perversions  of  religion  the  very 
causes  which  have  despoiled  it  of  freedom  ?  Shall 
we  then  believe  religion  to  be  at  heart  other  than 
radical  freedom,  or  freedom  other  than  radical 
religion  ? 

PRACTICAL   CONDITIONS    OP   FREE   PERSONALITY. 

Let  us  advance  another  step  into  the  meaning  of 
our  definition.  Religion  is  Freedom,  because,  as 
service  of  the  ideal,  it  is  attraction  by  infinity.  It 
is  the  pure  principle  of  development ;  as  reconciling 
the  elements  of  spiritual  being  in  their  own  proper 
movement.  It  is  thus  our  personality  itself  as  a 
freely  active  force. 

What,  then,  are  its  practical  conditions  f 
The  poles  of  Freedom  are  positive  Rights  and 
Duties ;    neither  valid   without   the   other ;    both 
inherent  in  the  personality,  whose   movement  is 
religion. 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  105 

So  that  religious  freedom  will  claim  for  every 
power  and  sphere  the  right  of  complete  culture, 
and  for  all  oil  the  same  ground  ;  namely,  as  alike 
forces  of  that  personality  through  which  alone  the 
infinite  is  recognized  as  real,  and  its  attractions 
followed  in  ideal  aims.  This  is  one  side  of  OUT 
freedom. 

But  the  other  is  allegiance  of  all  these  powers 
and  spheres  to  that  which  is  at  once  the  inmost 
fact  of  the  personality  and  its  practically  unattained 
object ;  namely,  Moral  Order.  It  is  the  sentiment 
of  reverence  for  eternal  morality ;  the  conviction 
of  duty  to  obey  it ;  the  yearning  to  be  absorbed  in 
it,  and  to  lose  what  we  now  are  in  its  grand  at- 
traction to  what  it  is  nobler  for  us  to  be  !  Not 
without  this  side  shall  come  the  other,  in  any  way. 
Religious  freedom  is  spontaneity;  but  it  is  not 
lawless  will.  If  we  drop  the  conscious  sense  of 
our  actual  finite,  we  lose  with  it  our  attraction  to 
the  infinite.  With  the  impulse  to  yearn,  to  aspire, 
to  revere,  passes  out  of  us  the  power  to  grow. 
Heaven  save  our  age  from  idolatry  of  self  and 
deification  of  sense  under  the  name  of  "  free " 
religion,  or  "  free  "  — any  thing  else  ! 

Whatever,  then,  excludes  any  gift  or  function 
from  that  open  attraction  to  perfection  on  which 
growth  depends ;  or  whatever  lays  on  the  con- 
science burdens  of  allegiance  beyond  the  claims  of 
the  Moral  Order  and  the  upward  aim,  —  is  at  once 
a  denial  of  religion  and  an  offence  to  rational 
freedom. 


106  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

THE  WAYS  OF  OFFENCE  TO  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM. 

And  now  to  apply  these  principles  of  criticism. 
In  what  ways  is  religious  freedom  thus  offended  ? 

I.  By  vain  distinctions  and  exclusions,  that 
supplant  its  universality.  These  may  be  theo- 
retical or  practical.  To  the  theoretic  class  belongs 
the  separation  of  Religion  from  Philosophy,  as 
"  re-alms  respectively  of  authority  and  freedom." 
More  than  one  modern  school  would  subscribe  to 
the  statement  that "  religious  faith  and  philosophical 
thought  cannot  coexist ;  when  one  enters,  the  other 
withdraws  !  "  But  can  any  one  tell  us  why  religion 
should  be  unphilosophical,  or  philosophy  nonre- 
ligious  ?  What  "  authority  "  that  can  be  which 
belongs  to  affirmations  of  religion,  but  not  to  those 
of  philosophy  ;  or  what  "  philosophy  "  that  can  be 
which  does  not  rest  on  ultimates  and  postulates  of 
pure  faith,  —  it  is  not  for  me  easy  to  imagine. 
But  I  am  sure  that  a  "  religion  "  that  puts  faith  in 
place  of  reason,  and  a  "  philosophy  "  that  pretends 
to  be  reason,  after  it  has  excluded  all  claims  of  the 
ideal  as  attractions  of  the  infinite,  because  the 
infinite  is  a  "mere  phrase,"  —  are  both  of  them 
mutilations  of  mind,  and  incompatible  with  its 
freedom.  What  is  "  faith,"  but  that  assurance  of 
a  better  solution  of  circumstances  than  we  can 
find  specific  grounds  for  predicting, —  one  which  our 
ideal,  a  constructive  infinite,  guarantees  to  our 
aspirations  ?  Is  not  that  the  same  thing  in  philos- 
ophy and  in  theology  ;  in  the  study  of  the  soul  and 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  107 

in  the  conduct  of  life  ?  How  can  you  tether,  as  to 
a  stake,  this  constant  element  of  your  spiritual 
motion  ?  Its  sphere  is  universal  as  mind  ;  wher- 
ever aspiration  is,  there  is  faith,  and  the  freedom 
that  goes  with  it.  What,  again,  is  "  authority  for 
belief,"  but  some  adequate  cause  for  believing  ? 
Oppose  it  to  reason  and  right,  you  abolish  it. 
Everywhere  its  credentials  are  the  same  :  a  stamp 
of  truthfulness,  an  appeal  to  your  sense  of  fitness, 
of  probability,  of  the  claims  of  the  ideal  on  the 
actual.  Does  this  belong  to  the  sphere  of  theolog}*" 
any  more  than  to  the  sphere  of  philosophy,  to  the 
conduct  of  life  any  more  than  to  the  study  of  the 
soul  ?  "  Religious  authority,"  in  any  other  sense 
than  this,  is  simply  spiritual  despotism,  which 
religion,  as  essential  freedom,  outgrows  and  leaves 
behind. 

Again,  we  hear  it  said  that  Religion  is  "  the 
realm  of  sentiment  or  emotion  as  opposed  to  that  of 
science."  In  the  outset,  I  do  not  admit  that 
religion  is  exclusively  emotional.  Are  there  no 
such  things  as  religious  convictions,  principles, 
disciplines,  persistent  cultures  ?  But  how,  further- 
more, can  sentiment  and  science  be  considered  as 
distinct  and  opposite  ?  Science  is  recognition  of 
invariable  law  ;  sentiment  is  feeling  for  the  true, 
the  beautiful,  the  good,  of  which  law  is  the  symbol. 
Is  there  no  recognition  in  such  feeling  ?  Is  there 
no  feeling  in  such  recognition  ?  Is  there  to  be  no 
sentiment  in  scientific  study,  making  it  unselfish, 
faithful,  ardent,  intuitive  ?  Can  science  dispense 


108  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

with  the  enthusiasm  that  makes  discoverers,  the 
devotion  that  cannot  despair ;  with  such  love  of 
the  fair  Cosmos  for  its  own  sake,  as  means  serenity, 
gladness,  praise  ?  The  one  form  of  sentiment  inad- 
missible by  the  scientific  mind  is  that  which  clings 
to  a  belief  as  true  because  we  desire  or  enjoy  it,  or 
feel  traditionally  bound  to  believe  it;  and  this 
sentimental-zsm  is  no  element  of  religious  freedom, 
any  more  than  of  scientific  mind.  And,  on  the 
other  part,  will  you  call  any  worship  "  free," 
which  does  not  recognize  law  as  supreme,  universal, 
divine  ?  If  religion  can  properly  introduce  miracle, 
then  there  can  be  no  science  :  the  very  possibility 
of  science  lies  in  the  postulate  that  law  is  univer- 
sal, a  harmony  that  cannot  anywhere  admit  the 
slightest  break.  Freedom,  then,  can  no  more 
permit  Religion  to  be  separated  from  science  as 
sentiment,  than  from  philosophy  as  faith. 

Human  practice  is  always  the  result  of  theoretic 
principles.  And  so,  out  of  this  limitation  of  religion, 
as  a  special  sphere,  with  faculties  of  its  own,  comes 
manifold  actual  suppression  of  other  spheres  and 
faculties,  in  the  name  of  religion.  It  is  the  constant 
demoralization  of  all  culture  that  there  should  be  a 
prescriptive  body  of  words,  phrases,  experiences, 
books,  traditions,  personages,  rites,  times  and 
seasons,  called  "  religious,"  for  which  special 
reverence  is  exacted ;  a  perpetual  assumption  that 
they  have  a  higher  function,  a  more  positive  moral 
and  spiritual  claim,  than  the  powers  and  pursuits 
defined  as  secular  and  human.  Robbed  of  the 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  109' 

saving  conviction  that  wherever  he  is,  there  he 
should  be  at  his  best,  spoiled  of  that  respect  for  his 
real  task  which  is  his  saviour  and  his  educator, 
civilized  man  may  well  stand  in  his  practical 
functions,  crude,  unconsecrated,  a  palterer  with 
right,  a  profaner  of  uses,  blinded  to  their  ideal 
relations  and  claims.  And  this  while  his  religion 
pretends  to  absolute  perfection  in  creative  and 
redeeming  powers  !  That  his  "  divine  religion  " 
may  fly  on  its  vicarious  wings,  his  human  behavior 
shall  grovel  and  snarl  and  snatch  and  rend  !  What 
is  this  "salvation"  that  with  such  absolute  com- 
placency generates  oceans  of  phraseology  in  tracts, 
commands  hosts  of  functionaries,  and  spreads 
itself  in  endless  evangelism  of  alliances  and  missions, 
conferences,  camp-meetings,  revivals,  —  while  the 
surrounding  world  of  politics,  traffic,  and  manners 
is  mocking  at  the  possibility  of  a  free  personality 
or  an  ideal  aim  ?  It  is  surely  but  little  to  say  of 
such  a  master  that  he  is  not  adequate  to  the  age  he 
claims  authority  to  rule  and  power  to  save.  Is 
not  this  the  plain  question  for  us  after  all  ?  —  Shall 
we  have  a  religion  competent  to  turn  the  license 
by  which  all  practical  powers  are  imperilled,  into 
the  liberty  of  upward  attractions,  and  the  self- 
assurance  of  democracy  into  the  self-respect  of 
becoming  disciplines,  —  or  shall  we  have  no  re- 
ligion ?  Can  an  age  of  infinite  ambition  dispense 
with  loyalty  to  infinite  justice,  truth,  good  ?  Which 
then  shall  represent  this  infinite,  —  a  court  of  special 
jurisdiction,  with  its  Christ,  Bible,  and  Church,  its 


110  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

elect  partnership  of  piety,  its  peculiar  phraseology 
excluded  by  general  consent  from  conversation  on 
practical  concerns  ;  or  an  ideal  of  duty  and 
desire  coextensive  with  life,  invoking  freedom 
and  culture  for  every  power  and  sphere,  and  moving 
them  all  with  the  sense  of  endless  attraction  to 
boundless  resource  ?  This,  or  a  superstition  of 
times  and  themes  and  ruts  of  thought ;  of  "  special 
providences  "  to  discredit  the  laws  of  nature,  and 
"  Lord's  daj^s  "  to  disparage  week-days  ;  playing 
the  policeman  to  constrain  free,  popular  education, 
and  forbid  labor  or  relaxation,  —  upon  an  old-time 
warrant  our  civil  laws  cannot  in  honor  respect  ? 

I  do  not  underrate  the  devotion,  culture,  human- 
ity contained  within  that  special  institution  which 
is  called  the  Christian  Church ;  but  I  should  be 
glad  if  it  were  possible  to  learn  how  much  the  idea 
that  religion,  in  its  free  substance,  can  be  insti- 
tuted or  organized,  and  set  apart  with  a  machinery 
of  its  own,  has  done  to  make  other  human  spheres 
irreligious,  by  the  false  standard  and  prestige  it 
sets  up.  Organization  assumes  to  be  the  last  and 
highest  form  a  principle  can  take,  its  endowment 
with  authoritative  powers  ;  and  always  claims  su- 
premacy, and  exacts  conformity,  on  these  grounds, 
in  exact  proportion  to  its  numbers,  its  directness 
and  definiteness  of  aim,  and  the  energy  of  its 
working  machinery.  Of  religious  organization, 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  this  is  eminently  true. 
Now  it  is  simply  certain  that  what  is  best  in  any 
one  cannot  be  outwardly  organized,  nor  mechaii- 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  Ill 

ized  in  any  way,  nor  even  manipulated  to  that  end 
by  himself,  without  loss :  his  self-communion,  his 
aspiration,  his  openness  to  ideal  suggestion ;  his 
personal  self-discipline  ;  his  mental  freedom ;  his 
power  of  suspending  judgment ;  his  hospitality  to 
new  thoughts  and  persons ;  his  conscience,  not 
subject  to  vote  or  director,  nor  committed  to  poli- 
cies and  conformities ;  his  sense  of  the  value  of 
his  function,  and  his  aim  to  fulfil  it  in  the  best 
way  ;  in  a  word,  what  goes  with  one  wherever  he 
is  and  whatever  he  does,  and  makes  the  constant 
level  of  his  highest  qualities.  All  these  vitalities 
are  unorganizable  ;  they  keep  their  essential  free- 
dom and  claims  above  all  specific  combinations  to 
which  men  may  commit  what  they  can  of  them ; 
and  it  is  these  which  the  pretension  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal organism  to  represent  religion  deprives  of  their 
true  educational  prestige,  as  the  claim  of  the  ideal 
and  infinite.  I  think  these  vitalities  are  what  you 
specially  mean,  and  would  rescue,  by  your  call  to 
"  Free  Religion."  You  may  well  beware  of  even 
unintentionally  lending  its  name  and  example  to 
the  side  of  forces  more  naturally  organizable,  but 
which  depress  its  culture,  and  which  would  like 
nothing  better  than  infecting  this  free  spirit  with 
their  own  dependence  on  the  strategy  of  mana- 
gers, turning  it  over  to  political  partisanship,  and 
making  its  adherents  eager  for  roll-call  and  drill. 
How  real  and  refreshing  to  all  of  us  are  such  re- 
ports of  the  laws  of  character  and  the  forms  of 
noble  conduct  as  are  free  of  phraseology  associated 


112  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

with  religious  or  political  machinery !  Give  us,  for 
once,  a  brave  summer  of  full  reliance  on  such 
forces.  Do  not  forget  their  power,  nor  the  natu- 
ralness of  their  growth  in  America  to-day. 

II.  A  second  great  class  of  offences  to  Freedom 
in  Religion  I  should  refer  to  the  theory  that  ob- 
jective validity,  essential  to  all  rational  concep- 
tions, is  to  be  denied  to  religious  ones :  in  other 
words,  that  God  is  but  a  process  of  human  thought. 
"  The  sensible  object,"  says  Feuerbach,  "  is  out  of 
man,  the  religious  is  in  him.  Religion  is  the  in- 
direct, or  imperfect  consciousness  man  has  of  him- 
self, and  the  goodness,  justice,  wisdom  he  worships 
exist  only  as  his  own  attributes." 

Now  this  is,  of  course,  rank  heresy.  Yet  what 
if  I  should  point  it  out  as  plainly  visible  in  certain 
commonplaces  of  Christian  belief  ?  The  Christian 
actual^  believes  this  lack  of  objective  validity  to 
be  true  of  all  religious  conceptions  but  his  own. 
His  God  is  a  real  person  ;  but  Jehovah,  Brahma, 
Zeus,  he  holds  purely  unreal,  existing  only  in  the 
blindness  of  the  heathen  mind,  or  in  the  just  criti- 
cism thereof  in  his  own.  He  forgets  that  if,  in  its 
attempts  at  affirming  the  infinite,  religion  has  been 
dealing  only  with  phantasm,  or  mere  mental  pro- 
cess, for  four-fifths  of  human  history,  it  can  only 
be  by  a  new  self-delusion  that  the  continued  pro- 
cess of  the  same  faculties  is  regarded  as  pointing 
to  a  real  object  at  last.  Remember,  it  is  not  a 
question  of  hunting  for  new  planets  with  a  cal- 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  113 

culus,  but  of  the  essential  force  and  constant  action 
of  spiritual  laws.  The  Christian  cannot  apply 
Feuerbach  to  judge  the  heathen,  without  convict- 
ing his  own  judging  faculty  of  the  Feuerbachian 
defect,  —  to  find  no  hold  on  positive  truth  in  its 
dealing  with  spiritual  beliefs. 

The  theory  that  man's  ideal  attractions  imply 
no  correspondent  reality  enslaves  religion,  by  treat- 
ing it  as  a  mere  reflex  movement  within  the  individ- 
ual mind.  It  is  but  putting  this  theory  in  practice, 
when  one  refuses  all  validity  to  the  beliefs  of 
others  but  what  they  have  for  himself,  as  con- 
ceived within  his  own  limits.  This  is  the  pith  of 
theological  contempt.  From  this  come  assump- 
tions of  absolutism  turning  on  the  poles  of  a  shal- 
low experience  ;  interpretations  of  the  movement 
of  history  as  a  mere  preface  to  some  special  re- 
ligion or  sect,  narrowing  great  systems  of  the  elder 
world  to  petty  meanings  ;  imprisonment  in  preju- 
dice so  total  as  to  forbid  the  perception  of  any 
thing  but  prejudice  in  other  men's  endeavors  for 
impartiality  and  candor. 

If  you  will  allow  a  personal  allusion,  simply  in 
illustration  of  this  point,  I  would  mark  it  as  worth 
recording,  that  a  recent  literary  and  historical  effort 
to  put  religious  faiths  on  their  own  merits,  should 
have  been  charged  by  all  the  denominational  organs 
with  "  prejudice  and  prepossession,"  for  the  reason 
that  it  did  not  assume  for  Christianity  those  ex- 
ceptional claims  which  have  had  the  field  of  tradi- 
tion and  teaching,  with  all  of  us,  to  themselves ! 


114  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

To  escape  prejudices,  it  would  seem,  one  must  hold 
fast  to  his  Christian  education !  What  shall  we 
say  of  the  eyesight  that  can  see  nothing  but  fore- 
gone conclusions  in  the  very  effort  to  escape  them  ? 
But  I  offer  an  instance  of  higher  moment.  A 
grand  metaphysical  and  spiritual  philosophy  was 
gradually  developed  by  the  Orientals  and  the 
Greeks.  Christendom  found  and  absorbed  it. 
Observe  how  it  has  fared  ;  how  it  has  been  stunted 
within  the  special  phase  it  assumed  for  a  tran- 
sitional age  of  reconstruction,  —  in  a  historical 
person,  a  book,  a  church  of  exclusive  claims.  Its 
Trinity,  for  example,  —  Infinite  Mind  conceived  at 
once  as  essence,  as  creative  power,  as  energizing 
life, — how  universal  and  all-productive  a  concep- 
tion it  was !  Is  such  a  truth  of  ideal  being  and 
progress  to  be  crystallized  in  the  prejudices  of  a 
Church,  and  have  no  validity  outside  certain  end- 
lessly revolving  routines  of  belief  ? 

We  are  not  apt  to  note  what  mamifold  practical 
tyranny  comes  of  the  habit  of  regarding  one's  own 
mental  processes  about  others  as  comprehending 
the  whole  reality,  not  of  one's  self  only  as  think- 
ing subject,  but  of  them  also,  the  objects  thought. 
Is  not  this  the  rationale  of  intolerance  ?  And  yet 
it  is  but  the  practical  side  of  a  kind  of  orthodox- 
Feuerbachian  assumption,  that  the  Infinite  itself 
exists  only  as  a  process  of  the  thinker's  own  mind. 

The  noblest  movement  of  modern  speculative 
philosophy  is  a  reaction  against  this  denial  of  in- 
dependent validity  to  centres  of  thought  beyond 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  115 

self.  It  appears  in  Hegel's  affirmation  of  the 
absolute  as  real,  and  in  his  principle,  —  by  him 
very  imperfectly,  I  think,  carried  out, — that  the 
aim  of  religion  is  to  represent  under  historical, 
that  is,  actual  forms,  the  positive  purport  of  human 
consciousness.  It  is  still  more  observable  in  the 
fact  that  Kant  and  Fichte  save  themselves  from 
egoism  by  bathing  in  the  great  waters  of  Spinoza's 
religious  realism :  his  One  Divine  Substance,  neither 
within  nor  without  us,  but  infinite  and  real. 

III.  The  third  great  class  of  offences  to  Relig- 
ious Freedom  is  referable  to  the  theory  that  re- 
ligion is  the  pure  "  sense  of  dependence."  As 
one  offence  consisted  in  treating  the  Infinite  as 
merely  incident  to  the  mind  of  the  worshipper,  so 
another  consists  in  worship  of  a  God  altogether 
outside  him.  Now  communion  between  men  being 
possible  only  through  a  common  nature,  and  free 
communion  only  between  souls  capable  of  mutual 
access  and  interfusion,  —  the  relation  of  finite  with 
infinite,  considered  as  a  mere  relation  of  depend- 
ence, can  surely  be  neither  productive  nor  free. 
This  external  God  creates  his  world-machine,  and 
man  to  operate  it :  plans,  stipulates,  or  works  on 
the  pliant  or  stubborn  stuff  as  a  moulder  on  his 
clay.  The  tenderness,  gratitude,  and  trust  allowed 
by  the  relation  as  commonly  conceived,  is  coun- 
terbalanced by  the  obligation  and  subservience 
implied  in  it.  Not  in  prayers  only,  but  in  sermons, 
hymns,  and  private  meditation  on  trial  and  suffer- 


116  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

ing  it  has  generated  a  weak  and  sentimental  tone 
of  appeal  from  realities,  which  greatly  needs  in- 
fusion of  the  Stoic  faith  in  nature  and  fate.  Tem- 
pered by  childlike  instincts  in  its  early  stages, 
the  theory  discloses  a  deeper  evil  as  it  unfolds. 
Hebrew  Jehovah,  creating  the  world  from  naught, 
sending  his  angels  to  make  men  prophets,  and  his 
wrath  to  trample  them  as  worms ;  covenanting  with 
them  on  good  terms  to-day,  and  hardening  them 
for  their  ruin  to-morrow,  —  embodied  many  crude 
forms  of  this  separation  of  finite  and  infinite.  It 
has  widened,  in  the  Christian  theory  of  "  sin," 
into  the  "  great  gulf "  which  supplies  Calvinism 
with  its  bottomless  pit,  crossed  by  its  ineffectual 
air-bridges  of  authority,  and  its  arrow-flights  of 
miracle  and  grace  through  the  void.  Its  array  of 
infinities  includes  the  remoteness  of  God  and  the 
impotence  of  man.  The  idea  of  the  infinite  thus 
becomes  the  slavey  of  the  finite :  the  spiritual 
world  is  rent  to  its  centre  by  self-contradiction. 
Such  entire  outwardness  of  relation  cannot  indeed 
be  effected :  God  without  man  and  man  without 
God  are  both  impossible.  But  though  so  far  an 
illusion,  the  theory  of  separateness  is  none  the  less 
capable  of  imposing  base  terms  of  acquiescence  on 
the  soul.  None  the  less  does  it  breed  offspring 
after  its  kind :  such  as  theological  "•  miracle,"  which 
means  that  natural  law  is  external  to  God  ;  "  effi- 
cacy of  prayer,"  as  appeal  to  a  foreign  Will  that 
needs  changing  and  allows  it;  anthropomorphic 
creeds,  whose  eye  is  to  some  actual  throned  Person- 


FREEDOM.   IN  RELIGION.  HT 

age,  issuing  decrees  of  judgment,  and  prescribing 
formal  conditions  of  salvation  ;  enforced  rejection 
of  natural  doubt  and  free  inquiry ;  the  notion  of 
revelation  as  a  specific  infusion  instead  of  a  natural 
development ;  and,  finally,  the  notion  of  allegiance 
due  from  man  to  a  Power  external  to  his  own 
moral  sentiment  and  rational  faculty.  Were  it 
possible  to  carry  out  this  last  notion  in  practice, 
personality  itself  would  perish.  But  the  theory 
of  pure  dependence  on  a  purely  distinct  and  sep- 
arate Ruler  is  refuted  by  the  necessities  of  belief 
and  conduct. 

How,  for  instance,  could  you  reconcile  the  om- 
nipotence of  such  a  ruler  with  the  amount  of 
suffering  in  this  world,  as  far  beyond  desert  as 
beyond  relief,  on  any  principle  that  is  not  at  war 
with  the  love  and  justice  which  humanity  pre- 
scribes ?  The  descent  of  a  reconciling  Christ  into 
human  life  does  not  help  the  difficulty  ;  since  the 
miseries  of  Christian  civilization  are  doubtless,  like 
its  joys,  much  greater  than  those  of  barbarism.  It 
is  only  by  the  insight  of  spiritual  imagination, 
which  makes  no  pretence  of  satisfying  such  outside 
Deity,  but  sees  infinity  as  mysteriously  involved 
in  the  human  ideal  itself,  —  in  upward  attractions 
self-justified,  in  a  sense  of  the  best  and  fittest, 
undismayed  by  experience,  —  that  life  becomes 
tolerable  amidst  woes  we  cannot  help  to  cure,  nor 
yet  endure  to  see.  To  make  paths  for  such  spiritual 
imagination  and  faith,  such  full  trust  in  the  very 
service  of  ideal  good,  is,  I  conceive,  the  highest 
function  of  our  liberal  thought. 


118  FREEDOM  AND   FELLOWSHIP. 

RESUME. 

When  we  use  this  term,  "  Freedom  in  Religion," 
do  we  not  mean  to  imply  that  the  Infinite  is  in- 
volved in  our  ideal  attractions,  as  at  once  within 
and  without  us,  but  as  neither  of  these  exclusive 
of  the  other  ?  Religion  is  the  souFs  absorption  in 
an  infinite  essence,  since  intelligence  is  that ;  but 
only  through  interfusion  thereof  with  finite  pro- 
cesses of  culture,  —  a  divinely  human  growth.  The 
light  by  which  we  see  principles,  the  love  by  which 
we  are  moved  to  humanities,  is  true  spiritual  sub- 
stance. What  we  know,  that  we  are :  what  we 
worship,  that  we  become.  A  truth  that  is  older 
than  Orphic  Mysteries,  than  Plato  or  the  Veda ; 
later  also  than  the  last  credo  of  the  scientists  or 
the  come-outers.  Yet  I  hear  it  scoffed  at  as  behind 
the  age,  because  it  is  so  ancient,  by  smart  sectaries 
who  do  not  know  what  it  means ;  or,  if  they  did, 
would  not  dare  to  teach  it,  so  revolutionary  is  it  to 
their  childish  traditions. 

This  then  is  the  sum  :  Our  ideal  of  the  right  and 
true  is  no  sense  of  outwardness,  therefore  no  con- 
striction of  freedom  ;  nor  is  there  any  place  for 
conceit  of  special  ownership,  or  of  messianic  com- 
mission, in  the  grand  relations  of  law  and  love  that 
reach  through  all  the  worlds. 

NEGATION   AND   AFFIRMATION. 

Now  the  substitution  of  such  a  Religion  of  Free- 
dom for  Christian  beliefs  and  institutions  that  are 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  119 

inconsistent  with  it,  will  seem  to  their  advocates 
pure  destructiveness.  This  implication  of  the 
Infinite  with  the  upward  attractions  of  the  natural 
and  finite  mind,  will  be  pronounced  "barren  nega- 
tion." Let  us  see.  Plainly  the  human  ideal  has  a 
very  searching  "  No "  to  pronounce  in  our  age. 
Its  dreams  of  art,  science,  philosophy,  social  justice, 
have  to  grow,  like  the  infant  Hercules,  by  strang- 
ling hydras  and  eating  the  sinew  of  bears.  Every 
reform  is  at  best  a  plowshare  that  must  cut  its  way 
through  drifts  of  prejudice  to  the  world's  quick, 
thus  brightening  its  own  edge  for  the  better  ser- 
vice of  coming  husbandry.  Do  you  fear  negation? 
Progress  is  negation  :  every  step  denies  a  past,  dis- 
claims a  future.  Life  and  Birth  are  negation  of 
previous  life.  God  is  negation,  the  Not  Finite,  or 
Infinite.  'Tis  but  the  emphasis  on  negation,  the 
destructive  spirit,  that  harms. 

But  he  who  talks  of  pure  destructiveness,  of 
absolute  negation,  imagines  the  impossible.  No 
people  ever  worshipped  pure  destruction.  In  the 
old  beliefs,  world-lapse  into  fire  or  flood  was  but 
part  of  a  cycle  in  which  the  waste  elements  were 
always  full  of  seed,  and  immortality  was  the  lesson 
of  death.  Science,  at  its  slower  gait,  comes  in  at 
last  to  echo  that  eternal  resurrection-song  of  the 
infinite  in  the  finite,  with  its  burden  of  universal 
laws,  indestructible  forces,  interchangeableness  of 
motion,  heat,  light.  In  vain  does  theological 
dogma  itself  pretend  to  put  pure  negation  towards 
the  Human  into  Infinite  Mind.  "  Whosoever  shall 


120  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

speak  a  word  against  the  Holy  Ghost  it  shall  not 
be  forgiven  him,  either  in  this  life  or  that  which  is 
to  come."  That  would  seem  almost  a  satanic  threat 
of  utter  rejection,  against  the  offender.  But  even 
Calvinism  cannot  unfold  it  into  any  thing  more 
negative  than  this  ;  that,  with  all  God's  hate  of  sin, 
He  takes  care  to  make  it  last ;  his  will  to  destroy 
it  getting  no  nearer  to  doing  so  than  to  a  love  of 
punishing  it  which  lasts  for  ever.  Sin,  instead  of 
being  never  in  his  all-perfect  mind,  is  never  out 
of  it,  —  a  confession  that  even  "total  depravity" 
is  not  absolute  evil,  nor  utterly  rejected  of  good, 
but  maintains  endless,  however  perverted,  relations 
with  it.  So  indispensable  is  it  for  man  to  see  the 
infinite  as  involved  in  the  finite  :  the  sign  of  this 
being  manifest  in  his  own  ideal,  redeeming  its 
harsher  and  gloomier  features. 

However  imperfect  human  conduct  may  be,  hu- 
man nature  involves  the  perfection  of  law.  So 
long  as  he  respects  himself  man  believes  the  shap- 
ing force  of  his  own  nature  to  be  Moral  Order :  so 
interpreting  its  laws  of  reward  and  penalty,  com- 
pensation, discipline,  growth.  Here  is  its  inner 
mould,  for  ever  unbroken,  unmarred.  No  sin 
touches  it,  no  weakness  invalidates.  The  worst 
conceivable  character  or  conduct  is  in  some  way 
the  inconceivable  mingling  of  this  perfect  law  with 
finite  circumstance  and  will. 

If  history  is  providential,  then,  to  speak  in  mythic 
types,  God  for  ever  idealizes  man.  What  eternal 
truths,  sown  broadcast  in  time  from  the  first,  cleave 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  121 

fast,  and  grow  in  spite  of  failure  and  abuse  !  Did 
He  recognize  in  us  no  more  than  the  mere  wit  or 
virtue  we  actually  put  into  trade,  politics,  or  even 
religion,  judging  our  value  by  our  attainment, 
what  growth  were  possible  ?  Just  as  the  bud  is 
not  treated  in  horticulture  as  a  mere  bud,  but  as 
promise  of  a  flower,  so  the  spirit-culture  we  call 
history  is  —  speaking  in  symbols,  as  we  must  — 
God's  recognition  of  man  as  germ  of  deity :  in 
other  words,  man's  constant  upward  attractions 
are  implications  of  the  Infinite  in  his  movement 
and  growth. 

This  is  what  offsets  our  "  negations ;  "  which  we 
are  quite  ready  to  compare  with  the  fierce  swoop 
of  dogmatic  systems,  not  only  upon  the  fair  hu- 
manities and  spiritual  intuitions  of  other  faiths, 
but  upon  human  nature  itself.  Out  of  these  sys- 
tems the  time  hastens,  as  we  turn  from  ages  of  ple- 
siosaurs  and  buried  footprints  to  the  living  world. 
The  mediaeval  maps  put  Jerusalem  in  the  centre 
of  the  earth,  ranged  lands  and  tribes  in  a  circle 
round  it,  walled  them  in  with  a  forbidden  sea,  with 
heathen  Gog  and  Magog  on  its  desert  rim,  and  a 
u  Gate  of  Iron  "  to  keep  them  off.  What  a  nega- 
tion of  all  this  when  Columbus  opened  America, 
when  De  Gama  doubled  the  Cape,  when  Marco 
Polo  came  back  from  far  Cathay !  But  what 
affirmations  swept  then  into  the  hope  and  faith 
of  man  !  Such  is  the  religious  revolution  of  our 
day. 

This  freedom  destroys  religion  only  in  so  far  as 


122  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

religion  is  made  a  threefold  bondage :  an  exclusive 
sphere  and  special  prerogative  ;  a  worship  of  self; 
a  pure  dependence  on  an  outside  God.  Com- 
pared with  this  faith  in  humanity,  the  intensest 
confidence  in  Christian  dogma  is  sheer  unbelief. 
It  is  fed  not  by  prescriptive  name,  person,  or 
church,  but  by  the  constancy  of  law  and  life.  It 
sees  in  common  people  not  the  possible  pictures 
and  statues  seen  by  Raphael  and  Michael  Angelo 
in  rough  marble  and  on  white  walls,  but  minds 
made  for  loving  right  because  it  is -right,  for  recog- 
nizing the  Infinite  in  all  ages  and  creeds.  Are 
they  unbelievers  who  trust  in  the  natural  powers 
by  which  we  come  at  all  we  know,  and  to  whose 
honor  all  we  can  be  redounds,  and  of  which  all 
founders  of  faiths  are  but  children  and  pupils  ? 
He  is  the  "  unbeliever "  whose  religion  requires 
him  to  denounce  these  ;  who  holds  it  unsafe  to  use 
them  honestly,  and  abide  their  issues.  The  "  de- 
structive "  is  he  who  would  suppress  or  disfranchise 
them  in  man  or  woman.  The  "  infidel  "  is  he  who 
deliberately  declines  to  speak  what  he  thinks,  or  to 
trust  humanity  with  what  helpful  truth  has  been 
intrusted  to  himself.  I  could  not  but  smile  to  hear 
it  gravely  said  the  other  day,  "  One  assumes  an 
awful  responsibility  to  teach  a  doctrine  not  sanc- 
tioned by  the  church."  What  is  that,  I  thought,  to 
the  audacity  of  refusing  your  own  honest  doubt?  — 
Judged  by  these  definitions,  it  is  the  church  of 
functionaries  that  denies  ;  it  is  free  personal  force, 
in  or  out  of  it,  that  affirms,  believes,  worships, 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  123 

creates.  They  who  speak  in  this  name  speak  in 
the  highest  name.  This  is  he  who  created  Bibles : 
shall  he  not  rend  his  own  books,  when  he  would 
supplant  them  by  his  own  higher  light  ?  Shall  not 
the  maker  re-make  ?  How  shall  he  grow  but  by 
0%£-growing,  or  live  but  by  cm£-living,  his  own 
work?  Dearer  the  thirst  for  truth  than  any  waters 
of  opinion  or  belief  it  ever  yet  struck  from  rocks 
along  its  way.  Where  are  the  pure  destructives 
our  defenders  of  the  faith  warn  you  to  avoid  ?  I 
do  not  find  them.  Pure  negation  is  chimera,  mo- 
tiveless purpose :  nature  never  made  it.  That 
many  should  confidently  assert  it  of  the  old  East- 
ern Nirvana,  that  refuge  of  the  far-off  times  and 
millions,  is  not  strange,  since  there  are  so  many 
more  who  can  imagine  that  honest  men,  close  be- 
side them,  criticising  a  Greek  and  Hebrew  book, 
can  be  seeing  nothing  beyond  what  they  reject. 

Believe  me,  the  mere  image  breaker,  who  could 
only  break  images,  would  never  take  hold  of  men's 
hearts.  He  would  be  heard  of  after  his  day  only 
to  be  despised.  Not  one  crumb  of  the  bread  by 
which  a  reformer's  working-force  is  positively 
nourished,  comes  of  mere  confutation  of  other 
men's  beliefs  as  such.  There  are  thirsty  winds 
that  descend  the  western  slope  of  the  Andes,  sucked 
dry  by  intervening  heights  of  barren  cold ;  but 
even  these  are  not  mere  wasteful  devourers  of  herb 
and  tree :  they  pass  out  beyond  into  the  Pacific, 
and  draw  their  cisterns  full  again,  then  bear  them 
over  the  opposing  trades,  and  pour  supplies  into 


124  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  fountains  of  Oregon,  Missouri,  and  the  Great 
Lakes.  Far  more  shall  our  Free  Reformer  be  a 
child  of  that  grand  law  of  nature,  which,  while 
allowing  destruction,  bids  us  live  by  creating, 
affirming,  building.  I  must  suspect  the  breadth 
of  that  freedom  which  scorns  history.  Our  proph- 
ecy is  no  break  with  the  past ;  but  the  resumption 
of  all  true  historic  powers  :  it  recognizes  history  as 
continuous.  Every  step  is  locked  with  the  last 
and  the  next:  every  epoch  saves,  transmutes, 
transmits,  as  well  as  destroys.  Every  step  presses 
the  whole  past,  and  has  that  long,  grand  push  for 
its  fulcrum.  Men  and  ages  that  seem  to  abolish 
most,  work  from  grounds,  and  to  ends,  beyond 
themselves.  Buddha,  Pythagoras,  Jesus,  Luther, 
and  the  rest,  are  children  of  their  times :  out  of 
Greece  and  Judea  came  Christianity ;  out  of 
Christianity  and  Brahminism  and  Parseeism  and 
Judaism  and  Islam,  and  all  the  grand  currents  of 
this  century's  civilization,  flows  the  vaster  tidal 
wave  of  Universal  Religion. 

All  destruction  is  but  a  little  dust  on  the  wind. 
Does  not  humanity  itself  abide  ?  What  truth  it 
ever  had  is  lost  ?  Who  are  these  that  stand  with 
arms  flung  round  the  old  creed  or  name,  or  cherished 
"  Body  of  Christ,"  trembling  lest  the  universe  crack, 
if  that  go  down  ?  'Twere  a  strange  universe  to  be 
alarmed  because  things  must  go  down  when  their 
time  has  come  ! 

History  is  a  seamless  woof,  wherein  no  thread  is 
broken,  nor  track  lost.  What  wih1  death  do,  the 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  125 

rankest  of  destructives  ?  Shall  I  keep  the  special 
details  of  my  present  life  beyond  that  change  ?  I 
know  not.  I  ask  not.  If  it  be  best,  I  shall  know 
them  only  in  their  issues.  But  what  is  of  value  in 
them  is  in  the  hands  of  shaping  laws  that  know 
not  waste,  nor  fraud,  nor  enmity  to  man.  Our 
freedom  affirms  all  when  it  claims  that  whatever  is 
found  to  be  the  law  of  human  nature  will  be  found 
good  for  human  nature.  Do  you  ask,  what  if 
Immortality,  Duty,  God,  shall  be  proved  baseless  ? 
I  repty  that  the  special  meanings  we  give  these 
terms  are  of  course  subject  to  the  same  test  of 
value  as  all  other  beliefs,  —  namely,  are  they  true 
or  false  ?  But  I  must  add  that  it  does  not  express 
any  fact  of  actual  experience  to  say,  as  is  often  done, 
of  what  is  so  full  of  opportunity  as  immortality,  or 
of  what  is  so  essential  to  the  sense  of  source  and 
resource  as  the  Infinite,  or  of  what  is  so  vital  to 
virtue  as  duty,  —  that  we  really  feel  we  can  do 
just  as  well  without  them,  should  they  be  proved 
illusory.  The  best  of  us  feels  nothing  of  the  kind, 
since  he  probably  knows  well  what  he  would  lose 
in  losing  them  ;  and  even  while  one  speaks  thus  of 
their  disproval,  one  is  in  some  sense  holding  fast 
the  substance  of  them.  The  ungracious  tone  of 
the  language  is  quite  uncalled  for.  Can  we  hold 
so  lightly  what  the  ages  have  been  teaching,  of  the 
conditions  of  character,  the  freedom  of  ideal  aims, 
or  of  that  relation  to  the  permanence  of  truth 
through  whatever  changes  of  consciousness,  which 
is  what  we  properly  mean  by  "  immortality "  ? 


126      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Might  I  not  as  well  say,  that  if  freedom  itself 
prove  false,  or  truth  no  better  than  falsehood,  I 
shall  be  just  as  well  off?  That  were  true  in  a 
verbal  sense  ;  but  in  every  practical  or  vital  sense, 
a  mere  empty  boast  or  fling.  I  know  that  the 
right  to  follow  truth  is  more  indispensable  than 
any  opinion.  But  if  all  questions  are  still  open,  — 
even  the  reality  of  duty  and  the  possibility  of 
growth,  —  then,  practically,  all  the  centuries  have 
taught  us  is  the  hypothesis,  nothing  else,  that  there 
can  be  no  basis  for  truth  in  man.  Our  Religious 
Freedom  does  not  believe  this :  it  trusts  itself. 
Duty  trusts  itself:  and  the  sense  of  the  Infinite 
in  our  ideal  is  a  promise  that  invites  to  confident 
work. 

FREEDOM  AND   RELIGION  APPLIED   AS   SCIENCE. 

It  affirms  for  the.  sciences,  authority  to  unfold 
nature,  and  claims  to  interpret  their  results.  It 
demands  the  guarantee  of  invariable  law  for  every 
fact  of  matter  and  mind  :  since  this  alone  admits  the 
absolute  confidence  which  is  essential  to  its  upward 
attractions.  To  Science  it  will  say,  The  Infinite 
is  not  outside  your  laws,  but  implicated  in  their 
mystery,  in  their  strength,  in  their  scope.  Not 
without  this  interpreter  may  you  read  their  outflow 
of  stars  and  layers,  past  count  of  numbers  or  term 
of  time  :  their  chain  of  forms,  their  foretypes  in 
plant  and  creature,  pointing  on  to  man.  Even  the 
mythic  cataclysms,  the  six  days'  miracle  of  creation, 
the  gods  that  dispense  with  time  and  growth,  the 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  127 

nativities  and  transfigurations,  do  not  lie  ;  for  they 
come  of  the  poetic  faculty  which  creates  its  own 
world,  having  laws  of  its  own  :  and  the  sympathetic 
heavens  and  earth  of  mythology,  once  rescued  from 
literal  historic  dogmatists,  speak  to  a  finer  sense, 
which  the  children  share  with  the  seers. 

Again,  it  is  now  the  day  of  physical  observation 
and  experience :  and  these  are  liable  to  forget  that 
it  is  forever  Mind  by  which  they  see ;  that  mind  is 
the  medium  and  solvent  of  all  knowledge,  and  so 
the  framer  and  the  postulate  of  all  their  facts  and 
laws.  I  believe  our  religious  freedom  will  look  to 
this  danger  also.  Nor  have  we  escaped  a  Biblical 
sky-firmament  to  be  shut  down  under  a  scientific 
rule  that  nothing  is  real  which  is  not  definable  in 
terms  clear  to  the  understanding.  Neither  God 
nor  Man,  law  nor  life,  freedom  nor  faith,  duty  nor 
immortality,  could  abide  that  test :  they  are  no 
subjects  for  such  handling.  Even  the  practical 
hope  of  science  to  make  nature  subserve  human 
uses,  the  harmony  of  true  social  relations,  and  the 
education  of  the  race,  depends  on  such  purely 
undefiuable,  illimitable  conceptions  as  unity,  liberty, 
love. 

AS  ART  AND  LABOR. 

It  is  but  fair  to  credit  our  new  spiritual  freedom 
with  the  renewed  resort  of  Art  to  the  study  and 
representation  of  Nature :  for  this  is  the  healthy 
reaction  from  creeds  that  have  contemned  the 
visible  world,  or  confined  art  to  ecclesiastical  and 


128      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

mythical  cycles  :  and  it  indicates  the  demand  for 
a  more  ideal  truth  and  purity  than  social  themes 
as  yet  afford ;  for  what  is  simple,  direct,  un- 
mortgaged to  traditions,  impartial,  universal.  So 
of  practical  arts.  The  appeal  to  constructive 
natural  disciplines  in  new  schools  of  all  grades, 
from  Kindergarten  to  Technological  Institute  ;  the 
effort  to  make  each  craft  a  faculty  of  finer  craft ; 
and  the  perfected  machinery  to  which  labor  is 
being  adapted,  —  are  all  signs  of  higher  estimates 
accorded  to  aesthetic  values,  as  elements  of  economy 
and  use.  But  against  all  materialistic  and  selfish 
elements  in  this  tendency,  religion  will  enter 
protest.  Art  is  not  saved  from  degeneracy,  —  from 
sordidness,  sham,  or  waste,  —  so  long  as  it  obeys  no 
higher  principle  than  force  of  machinery  or  pursuit 
of  gain.  Its  law  is  not  material,  but  ideal,  — 
freedom  to  follow  beauty  for  its  own  sake,  to  love 
right  and  fair  doing  for  the  Tightness  and  fairness 
of  it.  The  labor  that  turns  out  faithful,  handsome 
work  obeys  precisely  the  same  attractions  that 
make  the  fine  art  of  behavior,  the  beauty  of  personal 
conduct.  We  shall  not  escape  the  fact  by  calling 
the  demand  transcendental  and  visionary,  nor  by 
neglecting  this  condition  because  others  are  un- 
fulfilled. The  present  selfish  strifes  of  labor  and 
capital  are  barbarizing,  and  lack  the  first  elements 
of  constructive  power.  Nothing  can  make  labor 
remunerative,  harmonious,  and  free,  but  positive 
reverence  for  the  best  and  fittest  way  of  doing 
what  we  personally  have  to  do.  For  work  of  head 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  123 

or  hand,  imagination  or  skill,  the  one  indispensable 
redemption  is  this  simple  loyalty  to  the  infinite  in 
our  ideal.  We  shall  begin  solving  the  great 
"  labor  question  "  only  when  we  take  this  path  for 
our  religion,  and  have  a  public  sense  of  its  practical 
necessity.  To  this  end  intelligent  labor  reformers 
will  direct  all  their  outward  practical  methods,  co- 
operative or  personal.  Best  of  educators  to  it  are 
great  works  of  noble  art :  they  are  as  yet  in  the 
future,  because  this  moral  ideal  has  not  yet  pro- 
vided the  social  atmosphere  for  their  creation. 
They  await  a  justice  that  leaves  to  all  faculty  the 
freedom  of  its  best  conception  and  performance. 
There  lies  our  "  Italy,"  doubtless 

"  Beyond  the  Alpine  summits  of  great  pain." 

Let  religion  hasten  to  teach  what  the  growth  of 
man  at  last  allows  and  demands ;  the  identity  of 
the  Fine  Arts  with  spiritual  experience  ;  of  Poetry 
and  Music  with  the  rhythm  of  noble  desires  ;  of 
the  Novel  and  the  Drama  with  expansion  out  of  the 
stiff  veils  we  call  our  "  selves  "  into  the  manifold 
forms  of  human  experience,  towards  that  universal 
sympathy  which  is  man's  largest  sense  of  the 
Infinite. 

AS  THE   STATE. 

It  will  treat  the  State  as  an  ideal.  Not  as  a  mere 
right  of  majorities  or  parties  to  make  laws  for  their 
opponents,  or  to  substitute  pushing  legislation  and 
worked-up  force  for  the  earnestness  of  a  public 
sentiment;  not  as  everybody's  chance  to  put  his 


130  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

\ 

will  in  act,  which  is  the  French  madness ;  or  to 
work  springs  of  patronage,  which  is  the  American  ; 
or,  worse  than  all,  to  decide  his  dues  as  an  office- 
holder with  his  own  fingers  in  the  public  chest. 
The  religious  ideal  of  the  State  is  the  fulfilment 
of  functions  by  the  fittest,  as  the  one  condition  of 
just  culture  for  all.  One  absolute  allegiance  at 
least  is  due  from  every  citizen  :  it  is  to  the  personal 
disciplines  and  self-restraints  that  shall  secure  this 
end.  Worse  than  kingcraft  or  oligarchy  is  the 
republican  politician's  pretence  of  a  full  right  to 
hold  any  ofifice  he  is  able  to  secure.  This  false 
show  of  freedom  makes  the  reality  of  slavery.  A 
nation  rests  on  loyalty,  not  on  greed  ;  and  it  is 
only  the  idealism  of  the  citizen  that  can  hold  it  to 
this  law. 

When  the  freedom  of  religion  claimed  for  hu- 
manity a  sphere  given  over  to  Fugitive  Slave  Laws 
and  the  suppression  of  personal  liberty,  it  was  bid- 
den with  sneers  to  keep  its  gospel  out  of  politics. 
Now,  rm-forbidden,  it  will  apply  a  more  penetra- 
tive criticism  still.  An  exacting  morality,  by  no 
organized  powers  to  be  over-ridden  or  escaped, 
begins  to  ransack  all  functions  for  signs  of  corrup- 
tion, and  musters  its  indictments  to  prove  the 
startling  increase  of  crime.  This  is,  I  believe,  an 
evidence  of  growing  standards,  moved  by  freer 
sense  of  the  infinite,  more  than  a  sign  of  actual 
degeneracy  in  public  or  private  virtue.  The  subtle 
soul  of  personal  aspiration  to  freedom,  which  will 
not  be  shut  into  a  special  sphere,  as  "  religious," 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  131 

cannot  be  shut  out  of  any  as  wn-religious.  It  goes 
where  men  do  not  carry  prescriptive  church  or 
creed,  leavening  the  practical  secular  life  of  a  free 
community.  It  is  this  that  has  abolished  union 
of  Church  and  State  ;  not  only  that  religion  may 
be  free,  but  that  the  State  may  be  free  to  essential 
religion.  Depend  upon  it,  no  propagandist  Christ- 
ism  will  be  suffered  to  make  the  Constitution  its 
tool,  and  qualify  voters  by  a  creed ;  nor  are  politi- 
cal rights,  at  last,  to  be  made  into  an  Esau-pottage, 
fed  out  by  Christian  Associations  to  such  as  are 
willing  to  sell  their  freedom  of  thought ;  nor  yet 
into  spiritual  constabularies  under  the  old  seals  of 
King  and  Priest  and  Lord.  Our  spiritual  liberties 
are  protected  from  bigoted  legislation  by  a  grow- 
ing ideality  in  the  unconscious,  as  well  as  the  con- 
scious, faith  (if  not  yet  in  the  conduct)  of  our 
age  and  country, — too  broad  to  be -labelled  or 
classified,  too  personal  to  be  specifically  organized, 
too  much  in  the  line  of  social  tendency  to  fail  of 
furtherance  from  the  very  effort  to  suppress  it. 
The  real  dangers  to  personality,  to  the  life  of 
citizenship,  are  a  selfish  individualism  and  a  tyran- 
nous consolidation  —  working  together,  a  hydra  of 
materialism,  in  the  name  of  practical  rights  and 
interests  ;  and  from  this  we  must  be  preserved  by 
the  advancing  Religion  of  Freedom. 

AS   CULTURE. 

So  in  Culture.     The  defect  of  our  popular  edu- 
cation is  in  its  mechanical  tendencies.     Drill  of 


132  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

children  in  large  schools  to  uniformity  and  even 
concert,  in  all  mental  processes ;  immense  details 
of  prescribed  knowledge  infused  by  short  rules 
and  methods,  with  severe  competition  and  one 
field  of  reward  and  penalty  for  all  forms  of  mind, 
make  even  our  cherished  common-school  system  a 
kind  of  social  absolutism.  It  hardly  recognizes 
differences  of  taste  and  faculty ;  leaves  no  margin 
for  the  free  self-determination  of  the  ideal;  in- 
spires no  earnest  desire  to  learn  one's  own  real 
limits  or  powers.  It  does  not  discipline  the  dan- 
gerous democratic  notion  of  a  natural,  uncondi- 
tional right  to  manage  all  spheres,  public  and 
private ;  but  indoctrinates  it  with  subservience 
to  masses,  organization,  and  mutual  supervision. 
Mechanism  and  manufacture,  applied  to  mind  and 
morals,  is  naturally  the  first  essay  of  republican 
equality  at  the  great  task  of  self-culture.  There 
is  need  of  certain  uniform  methods  to  secure  equal 
opportunity ;  but  uniformity  become  absolutism  is 
as  much  the  peril  of  a  free  State  as  it  is  the  power 
of  a  despotic  one.  It  may  make  smart  human 
apes  and  effective  parrots  ;  but  we  must  educate 
our  youth  to  free  thought  and  noble  aims.  This 
needed  stand  for  the  personal  ideal,  and  its  claims 
in  every  child,  must  be  made  by  our  religion.  It 
must  bring  to  bear  upon  our  school  system  the 
culture  of  moral  loyalty  ;  an  appreciation,  in  polit- 
ical and  social  life,  of  real  gifts  and  patient  dis- 
ciplines ;  an  infinite  interest,  ready  to  spend  and 
be  spent,  in  adapting  its  methods  to  discover  special 


FREEDOM  IN  RELIGION.  133 

faculty  and  need,  to  stimulate  self-respect,  and  to 
thwart  the  public  rage  for  uniformity  with  a  noble 
universality.  The  mutual  influence  of  the  sexes 
in  common  cultures  and  disciplines  is  conspicuously 
needed  for  all  these  purposes.  More  vital  still  is 
the  protection  of  the  school  system  from  theologi- 
cal pretensions.  I  do  not  say  from  religion.  You 
cannot  exclude  that  without  producing  worse  cari- 
catures of  culture  than  Mr.  Gladstone's  proposal 
for  a  university  which  shall  teach  neither  philos- 
ophy nor  history,  because  of  possible  bearings  on 
sectarian  questions  !  Pure  "  secularism  "  is  no  such 
easy  matter  as  its  advocates  suppose.  The  reason 
why  the  Bible  should  not  be  read  in  the  schools  is 
not  that  religion  and  morality  are  out  of  place 
there,  but  simply  because  the  Bible  represents  the 
principle  of  authority  over  mental  and  spiritual 
freedom;  because  it  would  not  be  read  as  other 
books  are,  for  purely  educational  purposes,  but 
would  introduce  the  denial  of  that  freedom  to 
judge  and  reject,  which  is  the  basis  of  education. 
This  is  not  disrespect  to  its  merits.  Its  immortal 
best  sentences  ought  to  be  read  in  the  schools,  just 
as  soon  as  they  shall  be  put  on  the  same  level,  in 
every  respect,  with  other  great  sayings  of  similar 
purport,  in  Plutarch  and  Plato,  in  Avesta  and 
Veda :  such  universality  being  the  only  possible 
evidence  that  no  Bibliocracy  is  intended.  Put  an 
ideal  desire  of  free  personal  conviction  and  broad- 
est growth  into  the  school  system,  and  the  vexing 
question  of  religious  teaching  is  solved.  One  and 


134      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  same  spirit  shall  secularize  and  spiritualize  our 
whole  public  culture  ;  shall  quicken  free,  origi- 
nal mind,  and  bend  it  to  patient,  loyal  disci- 
plines, and  lift  it  into  the  courage  to  follow  simple 
aims,  and  homely  virtues,  and  hospitable  hopes. 
No  better  definition  of  Culture  was  ever  given 
than  Matthew  Arnold's  "  sweetness  and  light." 
Not  the  less  does  it  define  the  geniality  and  insight 
of  Natural  Religion.  With  the  new  honor  to 
Nature  enter  all  brave  faiths  and  sympathies ;  with 
boundless  tasks  of  joy,  whose  rewards  are  in  this 
life,  in  the  believing  and  the  doing :  the  world 
opens  its  infinite  resource  like  a  Father's  Heart ; 
and  love  and  duty  shall  be  everywhere  at  home. 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  135 


RELIGION   AND   SCIENCE. 
BY  JOHN  WEISS. 

A  THOROUGH  treatment  of  this  interesting 
•£?•  subject,  which  is  beginning  to  attract  the 
attention  of  all  minds  that  are  more  or  less  compe- 
tent to  deal  with  it.  involves  more  time  and  more 
respect  for  details,  more  personal  and  experimental 
observation,  than  any  morning  platform  can  fur- 
nish. I  lately  heard  of  a  saying  of  Professor 
Agassiz  to  this  effect,  that  the  amateur  reader  of 
scientific  discoveries  never  actually  possessed  the 
facts  that  are  described :  they  belong  only  to  the 
observer,  who  feels  them  developing  and  dawning 
into  his  knowledge  with  a  rapture  of  possession 
that  seems  to  share  the  process  of  creation.  To 
that  just  remark  I  add  my  conviction  that  the 
practised  observer  does  not  always  thoroughly 
apprehend  and  calculate  the  drift  of  the  facts 
which  he  procures.  Still,  a  mere  reader  of  science, 
however  receptive  his  intellect  may  be,  or  inclined 
to  scientific  methods,  is  not  in  a  position  to  speak 
with  authority  upon  various  points  which  emerge 
from  the  controversy  that  now  prevails  between  the 
two  parties  of  Natural  Evolution  of  Forces  and 
Natural  Development  of  Divine  Ideas  ;  for  thus  I 
propose  to  state  the  matter  in  hand. 


136  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

One  party  may  be  said  to  derive  all  the  physical 
and  mental  phenomena  of  the  world  from  germs 
of  matter  which  collect  forces,  combine  to  build 
structures  and  increase  their  complexity,  establish 
each  different  order  of  creatures  by  their  own  in- 
stinctive impulse,  and  climb  at  length  through  the 
animal  kingdom  into  the  human  brain,  where  they 
deposit  thought,  expression,  and  emotion.  At  no 
point  of  this  process  of  immense  duration  need 
there  be  a  divine  co-operation,  because  the  process 
is  supposed  to  have  been  originally  delegated  to  a 
great  ocean  of  germs:  they  went  into  action  fur- 
nished for  every  possible  contingency,  gifted  in 
advance  with  the  whole  sequence  from  the  amoeba, 
or  the  merest  speck  of  germinal  matter,  to  a  Shak- 
spearian  moment  of  Hamlet,  or  a  Christian  moment 
of  the  Golden  Rule.  Consequently,  ideas  are  only 
the  impacts  of  accumulating  sensations  upon  de- 
veloping brains ;  an  intellectual  method  is  only 
the  coherence  of  natural  phenomena  ;  and  the 
moral  sense  is  nothing  but  a  carefully  hoarded 
human  experience  of  actions  that  are  best  to  be 
repeated  for  the  comfort  of  the  whole.  The  im- 
agination itself  is  but  the  success  of  the  most  sen- 
sitive brains  in  bringing  the  totality  of  their  ideas 
into  a  balanced  harmony  that  corresponds  to  the 
Nature  that  furnished  them.  The  poet's  eye, 
glancing  from  earth  to  heaven,  is  only  the  earth 
and  sky  condensing  themselves  into  the  analogies 
of  all  their  facts,  in  native  interplay  and  combina- 
tion, wearing  the  terrestrial  hues  of  midnight, 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  137 

morn,  and  eve.  The  epithet  divine,  applied  to  a 
possible  Creator,  can  bear  no  other  meaning  than 
unknown;  and  the  word  spiritual  is  equivalent  to 
cerebral.  Spirit  is  the  germinal  matter  arranged 
at  length,  after  a  deal  of  trouble,  into  chains  of 
nerve-cells,  which  conspire  to  deposit  all  they 
have  picked  up  on  their  long  journey  from  chaos 
to  man.  So  that  when  their  living  matter  becomes 
dead  matter,  their  deposit  drops  through  into  non- 
entity ;  and  the  word  Immortality  remains  only 
to  denote  facts  of  terrestrial  duration,  such  as  the 
life  of  nations,  and  the  fame  of  men  with  the  heav- 
iest and  finest  brains.  If  the  brain-cells  discon- 
tinue their  function,  existence  cannot  continue. 

The  other  party,  which  inclines  to  a  theory  that 
creation  is  a  development  of  divine  ideas,  is  very 
distinctly  divided  into  those  who  believe  that  this 
development  took  a  gradual  method,  and  used 
natural  forces  that  are  everywhere  upon  the  spot, 
and  those  who  prefer  to  claim  a  supernatural  in- 
coming of  fresh  ideas  at  the  beginnings  of  genera 
and  epochs.  The  former  believe  that  the  Divine 
Mind  accompanies  the  whole  development,  and 
secures  its  gradualism ;  or,  that  the  universe  is  a 
single,  unbroken  expression  of  an  ever-present 
Unity.  The  latter  believe  that  the  expression  can 
be  enhanced,  broken  in  upon  by  special  acts  that  do 
not  flow  from  previous  acts,  but  are  only  involved 
in  the  ideas  which  the  previous  acts  contained  ;  so 
that  there  is  a  sequence  of  idea,  but  not  of  actual 
creative  evolution  out  of  one  form  into  another. 


138  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

The  former  think  that  they  find  in  the  marks  of 
slow  gradation  from  simple  to  complex  forms,  both 
of  physical  and  mental  life,  the  proof  that  a  Creator 
elaborates  all  forms  out  of  their  predecessors,  by 
using  immense  duration  of  time,  but  never  for  a 
moment  deserting  any  one  of  them,  as  if  it  were 
competent  to  do  it  alone  ;  so  that  the  difference  of 
species,  men,  and  historical  epochs,  is  only  one  of 
accumulation  of  ideas,  and  not  of  their  interpola- 
tion. The  latter  think  that  the  missing  links  of  the 
geological  record,  the  marked  peculiarities  of  races 
and  periods,  the  transcendent  traits  of  leading  men, 
are  proofs  that  the  Creator  does  not  work  by  natu- 
ral evolution,  but  by  deliberate  insertion  of  fresh 
ideas  to  start  fresh  creatures.  One  party  recog- 
nizes the  supernatural  in  the  whole  of  Nature, 
because  the  whole  embodies  a  divine  ideal.  The 
other  party  is  not  reluctant  to  affirm  the  same,  but 
thinks  it  essential  to  the  existence  of  Nature  to 
import  special  efforts  of  the  ideal,  which  are  equiv- 
alent to  special  creations:  so  that  the  naturalist 
gets  on  with  nothing  but  unity  and  gradation  ;  the 
supernaturalist  cannot  take  a  step  without  plurality 
and  interference. 

What  are  the  opinions  entertained  by  Naturalism 
upon  the  origin  of  ideas,  the  moral  sense,  the  spirit- 
ual nature  ? 

Naturalism  itself  here  splits.  One  side  boiTOws 
the  method  of  natural  evolution  of  forces  so  far  as 
to  derive  all  the  contents  of  the  mind  from  the 
experiences  of  mankind  as  they  accumulated  to  sys- 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  139 

tematize  themselves  in  brains;  and  when  further 
questions  are  put  as  to  whether  there  be  an  inde- 
pendent origin  for  a  soul,  and  a  permanent  con- 
tinuance for  it ;  whether  there  be  an  original  moral 
sense  that  appropriates  social  experiences,  and  gives 
a  stamp  of  its  own  latent  method  to  them,  the  an- 
swers are  deferred,  because  it  is  alleged  that  Science 
has  not  yet  put  enough  facts  into  the  case  to  sup- 
port a  judicial  decision. 

But  another  camp  is  forming  upon  the  field  of 
Naturalism.  Its  followers  incline  to  believe  that 
all  human  and  social  experience  started  from  a 
latent  finite  mind  which  is  distinct  from  the  struct- 
ure that  may  surround  it ;  and  that  the  movement 
of  evolution  was  twofold,  one  side  of  it  being 
structural  and  the  other  mental,  both  strictly  par- 
allel, moving  simultaneously  in  consequence  of  a 
divine  impulse  that  resides  at  the  same  moment  in 
the  physical  and  mental  nature,  —  an  impulse  that 
accumulated  into  a  latent  finite  mind  as  soon  as  a 
structure  appropriate  to  express  it  accumulated  ; 
that  the  history  of  mankind  has  been  a  mutual 
interplay  of  improving  circumstances  and  develop- 
ing intelligence,  but  that  the  first  step  was  taken  by 
the  latent  mind,  just  as  the  first  step  in  creating 
any  thing  must  have  been  taken  by  a  divine  mind  ; 
and  that  the  last  steps  of  perfected  intelligence 
reproduce  the  original  method  and  purposes  of  a 
Creator  who  imparted  to  man  this  tendency  to 
reproduce  them.  In  this  latent  tendency  all  men- 
tal phenomena  lay  packed,  or  nebulous  if  you 


140  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

please ;  or  it  was  germinal  mentality,  if  you  prefer 
the  term ;  or  inchoate  soul-substance.  The  term 
is  of  little  consequence,  provided  we  notice  the 
possibility  of  something  to  begin  human  life  with 
beside  the  physical  structure  that  was  elaborated 
out  of  previous  creatures. 

We  know  that  the  human  brain  repeats,  during 
the  period  of  its  foetal  existence,  some  of  the  forms 
of  the  vertebrata  that  preceded  it.  We  also  know 
that  when  any  organ  of  man's  body  is  diseased,  a 
degeneration  takes  place  that  repeats  the  state  of 
the  same  organ  in  the  lower  animals.  The  secre- 
tion is  no  longer  normal,  but  recurs  to  a  less  perfect 
kind.  So  we  notice  that  in  degeneration  of  the 
brain  some  idiotic  conditions  occur  that  repeat 
with  great  exactness  the  habits  and  temper  of 
monkeys  and  other  animals.  The  descending  scale 
of  degeneration,  no  less  than  the  ascending  effort 
of  development,  touches  at  animal  stages,  and 
incorporates  them  in  the  human  structure.  It 
would  require  a  uniformity  of  degenerating  con- 
ditions, sustained  through  an  immense  duration  of 
time,  to  degrade  a  human  structure  into  any  actual 
animal  form,  if,  indeed,  such  a  retrogradation  be 
not  forbidden  by  the  mental  and  moral  superiority 
to  which  any  human  structure  must  have  attained. 
Still,  the  physical  and  mental  diseases  of  mankind 
are  significant  allusions :  they  mimic,  as  it  were, 
some  stages  of  structural  development. 

When  Dr.  Howe  visited  the  isolated  cottages  for 
the  insane  at  Gheel,  in  Belgium,  he  noticed  that  the 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  141 

noisy  ones  (les  crieurs,  the  howlers)  could  be 
heard  in  the  dusk  crying  like  animals,  but  clearly 
human  animals ;  and  he  says,  "  Is  it  only  fancy,  or 
were  men  once  mere  animals,  shouting  and  crying 
aloud  to  each  other ;  and  is  this  habit  of  shattered 
maniacs  another  proof  that  all  organized  beings 
tend  to  revert  to  the  original  type,  like  that  rever- 
sion of  neglected  fruit  towards  the  wild  crab  ?  " 

The  popular  language  notices  this  tendency  to 
deterioration  in  the  tricks  of  over-sensual  men : 
we  say  a  man  is  a  hog,  a  goat,  a  monkey.  Some 
cunning  facial  traits  remind  us  irresistibly  of  the 
fox,  others  of  the  rat.  These  resemblances  were 
the  unconscious  elements  in  the  Egyptian  theory 
of  metempsychosis,  or  the  retrogression  of  evil 
men  into  the  animals  whose  special  tricks  were 
like  their  own. 

We  cannot  help  seeing  that  Nature  slowly  felt 
her  way  towards  us,  built  her  clay  models,  reframed 
her  secret  thought,  committed  it  to  brains  of  in- 
creasing complexity,  till  man  closed  the  composing 
period,  and  began  to  blab  of  his  origin. 

But  how  did  he  begin  to  do  that?  Was  his 
social  life  a  physical  result  of  the  sympathies  of 
gregarious  animals,  who  defend  and  feed  each  other, 
protect  and  rear  their  young,  dig  burrows,  spread 
lairs,  and  weave  a  nest  ?  That,  it  is  replied,  was 
only  the  structural  and  physical  side  of  something 
that  had  been  preparing  to  step  farther.  It  could 
not  have  furnished  the  germinal  conditions  of 
speech,  thought,  and  conscience.  Was  it  because 


142  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  fox  was  cunning,  that  man  learned  to  circum- 
vent his  enemies  ;  because  the  elephant  was  saga- 
cious, that  he  undertook  to  ponder ;  because  the 
monkey  was  curious,  that  he  began  to  pry  into 
cause  and  effect ;  because  the  bee  built  her  com- 
pact cell,  that  he  grew  geometrical  ?  The  answer 
made  is,  that  these  structural  felicities  lay  on  the 
road  between  a  Creator  who  geometrized,  and  a 
creature  who  learned  to  see  that  it  was  so,  and 
called  it  Geometry.  At  the  end  of  that  road  is  a 
mind  that  undertakes  to  interpret  whence  the  road 
started,  and  how  it  was  laid  out.  If  you  prefer  to 
derive  that  latent  mind  from  these  previous  states 
of  animal  intelligence,  it  does  not  damage  the  pre- 
sumption in  favor  of  independent  mind.  Estimate 
the  animals  to  be  as  sagacious  as  you  please,  until 
they  barely  escape  stepping  over  into  the  domain 
which  our  reflective  words  have  appropriated,  — 
such  as  memory,  perception,  adaptation,  causality, 
also  a  rudiment  of  conscience.  Even  be  surprised 
by  traces  of  self-devotion,  like  that  in  the  "  heroic 
little  monkey,  who  braved  his  dreaded  enemy  in 
order  to  save  the  life  of  his  keeper ;  or  in  the  old 
baboon,  who,  descending  from  the  mountains,  car- 
ried away  in  triumph  his  young  comrade  from  a 
crowd  of  astonished  dogs."  Say,  if  you  will,  as 
Rama  said  in  the  Ramayana,  when  a  vulture  died 
in  defending  his  mistress  :  "  Of  a  certainty  there 
are  amongst  the  animals  many  good  and  generous 
beings,  and  even  many  heroes.  For  my  part,  I  do 
not  doubt  that  this  compassionate  bird,  who  gave 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  143 

his  life  for  my  sake,  will  be  admitted  into  Para- 
dise." Believe,  if  you  are  a  dog-fancier,  that  in 
"  that  equal  sky  "  your  faithful  dog  will  bear  you 
company.  It  would  infringe  upon  my  sense  of 
personality  no  more  than  to  have  him  trotting  by 
my  side  in  this  world.  Here  he  is  altogether  un- 
conscious how  my  moral  sense  sets  store  by  and 
idealizes  his  instinctive  service,  and  how  I  natter 
him  with  imputations  of  my  own  self.  He  licks 
the  hand  that  extends  to  him  a  mood  of  a  Creator's 
appreciation  of  fidelity. 

But  grant  that  a  Creator  derived  the  latent  hu- 
man mind  by  gradualism  out  of  all  kinds  of  animal 
anticipations.  The  mind  thus  derived  reaches  to  a 
distinction  from  physical  structure,  and  to  a  sub- 
ordination of  it  to  ideal  purposes,  at  that  point  of 
development  where  the  man  can  say,  /  am ;  that 
phrase  is  an  echo  against  the  walls  of  creation  of 
the  first  creative  fiat  of  Him  who  is  I  AM.  When 
man  finds  language  to  express  his  sense  of  personal 
consciousness,  God  overhears  the  secret  of  his  own 
condition  told  into  all  the  ears  he  has  created  by  all 
the  tongues  of  his  own  spiritual  essence.  The 
mouse  cannot  squeak  it,  nor  the  elephant  trumpet 
it ;  the  sparrow  cannot  cheep  and  twitter  it,  nor 
can  the  ape  chatter  his  anticipation  that  he  is  about 
to  be  liberated  into  speech  and  personal  identity. 
All  the  herds  of  the  animals  furnish  the  physical 
structure  of  man  with  the  devices  of  their  strength 
and  instinct,  but  they  have  no  personal  freedom  to 
contribute.  A  school  of  whales  will  yield  so  many 


144  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

barrels  of  oil  to  feed  the  midnight  lamps  of  think- 
ers who  chase  the  absent  sun  with  surmises  con- 
cerning a  light  that  never  sets. 

Certainly  it  must  be  true  that  the  physical  and 
chemical  forces  which  are  involved  in  acts  of 
creation  cannot  suggest  to  any  parts  of  creation 
the  previous  laws  of  a  Creator.  We  say  these 
forces  reach  the  felicity  of  making  a  man :  if  this 
be  so,  they  have  made  something  that  is  different 
from  their  own  nature.  Man  himself  betrays  this 
difference  as  soon  as  he  begins  to  establish  science 
upon  universal  laws:  it  is  a  proof  that  he  is  not 
only  a  part  of  creation,  in  the  natural  order,  but 
also  the  member  of  a  spiritual  order,  by  virtue  of 
which  he  attains  slowly  to  conceptions  of  the  laws 
that  made  him,  including  the  chemical  functions 
of  his  various  organs.  Which  of  all  our  secre- 
tions could  explain  themselves  ?  After  they  have 
discharged  all  their  duty  of  nutriment  and  defeca- 
ti6n  they  have  reached  the  end  of  their  tether. 
Could  the  pancreatic  juice,  by  going  into  partner- 
ship with  the  liver,  kidneys,  and  stomach,  succeed 
in  explaining  the  manner  of  its  secretion,  and  how 
it  pours  into  the  duodenum?  Can  the  blood, 
which  is  the  expression  to  which  these  lower  func- 
tions reach,  lift  to  the  brain  a  report  of  the  way  it 
grew  to  be  red,  and  of  the  use  of  the  white  cor- 
puscles ?  Do  the  countless  nerve-cells  that  weave 
their  telegraphic  circuits  through  the  brain  —  to 
which  every  organ  sends  its  message,  and  receives 
thence  its  reply  —  convert  these  sensations  into 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  145 

something  that  is  not  nerve-cell,  that  is  not  gray 
or  fibrous  matter ;  do  they  lose  their  identity  and 
become  deduction,  wit,  imagination,  and  synthetic 
thought  ?  When  you  can  prove  that  germinal 
matter  made  itself,  you  will  be  in  a  condition  to 
show  that  matter  interprets  itself.  For  that  is  what 
man  does  :  he  interprets  not  only  the  matter  of  his 
own  private  structure,  but  of  all  organic  and  in- 
organic forms.  Does  matter  arm  the  eyes  it  makes 
with  the  telescope  and  microscope  to  overcome  its 
own  extension  and  density  ?  What  is  it  that  cal- 
culates the  weights  of  the  planets,  and  records 
the  relative  ratios  of  their  movements,  and  an- 
nounces new  planets  before  they  have  been  seen  ? 
Something  kindred  with  the  intellect  that  precon- 
ceived the  existence  of  that  universe  of  germs 
which  becomes  function,  substance,  form,  and 
force.  When  we  see  daily  how  all  created  things 
hasten  to  fall  in  with  the  logic  of  the  best  think- 
ers, and  to  crystallize  along  the  lines  which  they 
draw,  we  suspect  that  such  lines  are  drawn  parallel 
with  divine  ideas,  and  that  science  is  made  in  the 
image  of  a  Creator. 

This  position  of  theistic  Naturalism  entitles  it 
not  to  be  afraid  of  all  the  scientific  facts  that  can 
be  produced.  If  Mr.  Darwin  could  prove  to-mor- 
row that  we  have  descended  from  an  anthropoid 
ape  that  tenanted  the  boundless  waste  of  forest 
branches,  we  should  as  cheerfully  accept  our  struc- 
ture created  out  of  dust  in  that  form  as  in  any 
other.  There  is  dignity  in  dust  that  reaches  any 

10 


146      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

form,  because  it  eventually  betrays  a  forming 
power,  and  ceases  to  be  dust  by  sharing  it.  I  am 
willing  to  have  it  shown  that  I  travel  with  a  whole 
menagerie  in  my  cerebellum  :  your  act  of  showing 
it  to  me  shows  that  neither  you  nor  I  are  members 
of  that  menagerie.  We  are  its  feeders,  trainers, 
and  interpreters.  We  act  God's  part  towards  it, 
as  he  does  upon  the  scale  of  zones  and  continents. 
In  us,  in  fact,  he  improves  upon  his  natural  action 
by  bringing  all  his  dumb  creatures  under  one  roof, 
where  he  enjoys  the  benefit  of  knowing  that  his 
motive  in  creating  them  is  understood  and  de- 
lighted in  ;  so  that  though  saurians  are  out  of 
date,  and  he  no  longer  has  the  joy  of  making  the 
mammoth  and  aurochs,  we  rehearse  the  ancient 
raptures  for  him,  and  preserve  them  in  our  struc- 
ttures. 

"  Thus  He  dwells  in  all, 
From  life's  minute  beginnings,  up  at  last 
To  man,  —  the  consummation  of  this  scheme 
Of  being,  the  completion  of  this  sphere 
Of  life  ;  whose  attributes  had  here  and  there 
Been  scattered  o'er  the  visible  world  before, 
Asking  to  be  combined,  —  dim  fragments  meant 
To  be  united  in  some  wondrous  whole, — 
Imperfect  qualities  throughout  creation, 
Suggesting  some  one  creature  yet  to  make, — 
Some  point  where  all  those  scattered  rays  should  meet 
Convergent  in  the  faculties  of  man." 

"  Man,  once  descried,  imprints  for  ever 
His  presence  on  all  lifeless  things  :  the  winds 
Are  henceforth  voices,  in  a  wail  or  shout, 
A  querulous  mutter,  or  a  quick,  gay  laugh,  — 
Never  a  senseless  gust  now  man  is  born." 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  147 

"  So  in  man's  self  arise 
August  anticipations,  symbols,  types 
Of  a  dim  splendor  ever  on  before, 
In  that  eternal  circle  run  by  life." 

I  submit  to  you  the  doubt  whether  germinal 
matter,  long  cradled  in  the  earth's  evolving  periods, 
and  then  baptized  as  the  individual,  Robert  Brown- 
ing, could  have  composed  those  lines  which  con- 
tain prevision  of  the  whole  drift  of  modern  science. 
Could  nerve-cells,  nourished  by  roast  meat,  revel 
in  those  "  august  anticipations "  of  a  state  and 
attainment  that  depend  upon  a  continuance  of  our 
life? 

We  need  be  afraid  of  nothing  in  heaven  or 
earth,  whether  dreamt  of  or  not  in  our  philoso- 
phy. It  is  a  wonder  to  me  that  scholars  and 
clergymen  are  so  skittish  about  scientific  facts. 
I  delight,  for  instance,  in  the  modern  argument 
which  reproduces  and  systematizes  the  ancient 
fire-worship  of  the  Persian,  by  showing  that  the 
sun's  atmosphere  contains  all  the  stuffs  of  the  solar 
system,  and  is  its  God  whose  vibrating  emanations 
wake  all  things  to  a  morning  of  living.  The  more 
possibilities  you  attribute  to  the  sun,  the  more  ex- 
haustive you  allege  its  creative  power  to  be,  to  the 
extent,  if  you  please,  of  sending  the  fine  ether 
which  courses  through  the  brain-cells ;  the  more 
correspondent  to  the  solar  nature  you  show  that 
all  life-action  may  be,  the  more  you  help  me  to 
my  belief  in  a  latent  mind  as  the  first  term  of  hu- 
man existence.  You  have  made  that  fluent  and 


148  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

wallowing  sun  a  solid  stepping-stone  in  the  great 
river  of  phenomena,  and  it  takes  me  across  dry- 
shod,  with  not  the  smell  of  its  fire  upon  my  gar- 
ments,—  takes  me  directly  to  a  Cause  for  something 
so  glorious,  for  such  a  mobile  and  flaming  minister 
to  all  things.  On  the  way  toward  that  Cause,  if  I 
choose,  I  can  step  to  suns  more  distant,  each  of 
which  is  the  life-centre  of  its  system  and  the  dis- 
tributor of  germs ;  but  though  this  pathway  may 
stretch  to  the  crack  of  doom  expected  by  the  theo- 
logian, I  shall  find  at  the  end  of  it  something  that 
sands  the  floor  of  heaven  thick  with  suns.  Some- 
thing ;  not  another  sun,  but  sun's  Father.  I 
started  with  an  idea  of  Cause,  and  now  I  find  the 
reason  why  I  did,  because  nothing  is  uncaused. 
I  get  justification  for  using  the  term  ;  for  it  appears 
to  be  the  language  used  at  length  by  One  who  can 
no  longer  be  content  that  his  heavens  should  have 
no  sound,  and  that  their  voice  should  not  be  heard. 
Latent  mind  first  betrayed  its  presence  on  the  earth 
by  beginning  to  grope  from  effects  to  causes,  to 
account  for  things.  Thus  the  mind,  like  a  weak 
party  of  soldiers,  separated  from  its  base  by  formi- 
dable streams,  has  slowly  pontooned  its  way  back 
to  the  main  Cause,  by  successive  discoveries  of 
causes.  It  is  recognized  afar  off,  it  is  welcomed, 
and  rushes  with  the  hunger  of  long  absence  into 
the  arms  of  comradeship. 

It  does  not  disturb  me  to  be  told  that  the  mind 
has  no  innate  ideas ;  that,  in  fact,  the  entity  called 
mind  is  a  result  of  the  impressions  which  the  senses 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  149 

'  gather  from  Nature,  a  body  of  sifted  perceptions  ; 
that  all  our  emotions  started  in  the  vague  sympathy 
/that  the  first  men  had  for  each  other  when  they 
found  themselves  in  company  ;  that  a  sense  of 
justice  is  not  native  to  the  mind,  but  only  a  conse- 
quence of  the  efforts  of  men  to  get  along  comforta- 
bly in  crowds,  with  the  least  amount  of  jostling ; 
that  the  feeling  of  chastity  has  no  spiritual  deriva- 
,  tion,  but  was  slowly  formed  in  remote  ages  by 
observation  of  the  pernicious  effects  of  promiscuous 
living ;  that,  in  short,  all  the  mental  states  which 
'we  call  intuitions,  should  be  called  digestions  from 
experience.  For,  supposing  this  theory  to  be  the 

/  lone  that  will  eventually  account  for  all  mental 
phenomena,  why  need  one  care  how  he  grew  into 
a  being  who  throbs  with  the  instantaneous  purpose 
of  salutary  ideas,  with  the  devotion  of  his  thought 
and  conscience  to  the  service  of  mankind,  with  a 
ravishing  sense  of  harmony  and  proportion  that 
breaks  into  his  symphony  and  song?  When  a 
/  man  reaches  the  point  of  being  all  alive,  thrilling 
to  his  finger-tips  with  all  the  nerves  a  world  can 

c,  contribute,  shall  he  distress  himself  because,  upon 
examining  his  genealogy,  he  discovers  no  aristo- 
crat, but  a  plebeian,  for  his  ancestor  ?  If,  in  fact, 
he  should  discover  something  that  had  fallen  to  the 
conventionality  of  being  an  aristocrat,  it  would,  as 
the  world  goes,  breed  a  suspicion  that  something 
previous  had  maintained  the  dignity  of  being  a 
plebeian.  Manhood  ennobles  all  ancestors,  and 
they  enjoy  princely  revenues  in  its  vitality.  Must 


150  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

I  make  myself  miserable  because  I  am  told  that 
for  nine  months  of  iny  existence  I  was  successively 
a  fish,  a  frog,  a  bird,  a  rabbit,  a  monkey,  and  that 
my  infancy  presented  strong  Mongolian  character- 
istics? This,  then,  was  the  path  to  the  human 
mind,  that  outswims  all  fishes  in  a  sea  where  no 
fish  can  live,  that  leaps  with  wit  and  analogy  more 
agile  than  frogs  or  kangaroos,  that  travels  by  aerial 
routes  to  spaces  where  no  bird's  wing  could  winnow. 
So  be  it,  if  it  be  so.  I  do  not  care  for  the  path 
when  I  come  in  sight  of  the  mansion  of  love  and 
beauty  that  has  been  prepared  for  me.  Its  win- 
dows are  all  aglow  with  "  an  awful  rose  of  dawn." 
What  delicacy  of  sentiment  or  imagination  can  be 
desecrated  because  barbarian  ancestors  felt  like 
brutes  or  fancied  like  lunatics?  Can  the  mind's 
majestic  conception  of  a  divine  plan  of  orderly  and 
intelligent  development  be  unsphered  and  brutal- 
ized because  the  first  men  felt  the  cravings  of 
causality  more  faintly  than  the  pangs  of  hunger  ? 
Causality  has  reached  its  coronation-day :  its  gar- 
ment of  a  universe  is  powdered  with  galaxies  and 
nebuke,  suns  glitter  on  its  brow,  the  earth  is  its 
footstool,  its  sceptre  is  controlling  Law.  You  can- 
not mortify  or  attaint  this  king  by  reminding  it  of 
days  spent  in  hovels  and  squalor,  when  it  hid  from 
the  treason  of  circumstances,  and  was  sheltered  and 
fed  precariously  by  savages.  Would  you  unseat 
it  ?  Then  annihilate  a  universe. 

Tin's  latent  tendency  to  discover  cause  rescues 
the  first  beginnings  of  the  human  soul  from  any 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  151 

materialism  that  would  deny  its  independent  ex- 
istence. It  provides  the  human  structure  with  a 
tenant,  who  improves  it  as  his  circumstances 
become  more  flattering,  until  both  together  frame 
one  complete  convenience.  We  do  not  require  a 
theory  of  innate  ideas  to  establish  this  soul  upon 
earth  and  set  it  going.  All  we  require  is  the 
theory  of  innate  tendency,  of  latent  directions,  of 
inchoate  ideas,  that  pervade  this  germinal  soul- 
substance  just  as  the  divine  ideas  pervaded  primi- 
tive matter.  I  conceive  that  our  mental  method 
and  our  moral  sense  were  possibilities  of  soul- 
germs,  but  that  experience  stimulated  them  into 
improving  action  and  expression,  till  at  length  our 
idea  of  sequence  and  origin,  and  our  sense  of  right 
and  wrong,  have  become  normal  conditions  of  in- 
telligence. Why  not  say,  then,  that  they  are  at 
last  intuitive?  But  it  is  chiefly  important  to 
accept  them  as  essential  elements  of  a  human  per- 
son, without  regard  to  the  method  of  their  deriva- 
tion. For  derivation  is  not  in  itself  fatal  to  the 
independence  of  the  thing  derived.  It  is  not 
among  genera  and  species  :  why  should  it  be 
among  personal  ideas  ? 

People  do  not  like  to  have  their  conscience 
derived  from  gradual  discoveries  of  acts  that 
turned  out  to  be  the  most  useful  or  the  most  sym- 
pathetic, nor  to  feel  that  they  have  no  inner  guide 
but  this  inherited  succession  of  selfish  experiences. 
And,  indeed,  the  theory  does  not  account  for  all 
the  facts.  It  is  unable  to  give  any  satisfactory 


152  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

explanation  of  the  moral  condition  of  such  men  as 
Woolman  and  John  Brown  ;  of  any  brakeman  or 
engineer  who  coolly  puts  himself  to  death  to  save 
a  train  ;  of  Arnold  of  Winkelried  who  "  gathered 
in  his  breast  a  sheaf  of  Austrian  spears,"  and  felt 
Swiss  liberty  trample  over  him  and  through  the 


This  theory,  that  the  moral  sense  was  slowly 
deposited  by  innumerable  successions  of  selfish  ex- 
periences, could  make  nothing  of  the  story  lately 
told  of  the  way  a  little  girl  was  rescued,  who  had 
"  wandered  on  to  the  track  of  the  Delaware  Rail- 
road as  a  freight  train  of  nineteen  cars  was  ap- 
proaching. As  it  turned  the  sharp  top  of  the  grade, 
opposite  St.  Georges,  the  engineer  saw  the  child 
for  the  first  time,  blew  '  Down  brakes,'  and  re- 
versed the  engine.  But  it  was  too  late  to  slacken 
its  speed  in  time  ;  and  the  poor  baby  got  up,  and, 
laughing,  ran  to  meet  it.  4  1  told  the  conductor,' 
says  the  engineer,  '  if  he  could  jump  off  the  engine, 
and,  running  ahead,  pick  the  child  up  before  the 
engine  reached  her,  he  might  save  her  life,  though 
it  would  risk  his  own  ;  which  he  did.  The  engine 
was  within  one  foot  of  the  child  when  he  secured 
it,  and  they  were  both  saved.  I  would  not  run  the 
same  risk  of  saving  a  child  again  by  way  of  experi- 
ment for  all  Newcastle  County,  for  nine  out  of  ten 
might  not  escape.  He  took  the  child  to  the  lane, 
and  she  walked  to  the  house,  and  a  little  girl  was 
coming  after  it  when  we  left.'  The  honest  engi- 
neer, having  finished  his  day's  run,  sits  down  the 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  153 

next  morning  and  writes  this  homely  letter  to  the 
father  of  the  child,  '  in  order  that  it  may  be  more 
carefully  watched  in  future,'  and  thanking  God 
'  that  himself  and  the  baby's  mother  slept  tran- 
quilly last  night,  and  were  spared  the  life-long 
pangs  of  remorse.'  It  does  not  occur  to  him  to  even 
mention  the  conductor's  name,  who,  he  seems  to 
think,  did  no  uncommon  thing  in  risking  his  own 
life,  unseen  and  unnoticed  on  the  solitary  road,  for 
a  child  whom  he  would  never  probably  see  again." 
The  feeling  of  utility  would  confine  men  strictly 
within  the  limits  of  the  average  utility  of  any  age. 
Each  generation  would  come  to  a  mutual  under- 
standing of  the  things  that  would  be  safe  to  per- 
form. The  instinct  of  self-preservation  would  be 
a  continual  check  to  the  heroism  that  dies  framing 
its  indictment  against  tyrannies  and  wrongs.  The 
great  men  who  fling  themselves  against  the  scorn 
and  menace  of  their  age  could  never  be  born  out 
of  general  considerations  of  utility  or  sympathy  ; 
for  each  man  would  say  that  a  wrong,  though  not 
salutary  to  its  victim,  would  not  be  salutary  to  one 
who  should  try  to  redress  it.  Sympathy  that  was 
spawned  by  the  physical  circumstances  of  remote 
ages  could  never  reach  the  temper  of  consideration 
for  the  few  against  the  custom  of  the  many.  You 
could  no  more  extract  heroism  from  such  a  begin- 
ning of  the  moral  sense  than  sunbeams  from  cu- 
cumbers. We  owe  a  debt  to  the  scientific  man 
who  can  show  how  many  moral  customs  result 
from  local  and  ethnic  experiences,  and  how  the 


154      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

conscience  is  everywhere  capable  of  inheritance 
and  education.  Pie  cannot  bring  us  too  many  facts 
of  this  description,  because  we  have  one  fact  too 
much  for  him  ;  namely,  a  latent  tendency  of  con- 
science to  repudiate  inheritance  and  every  expe- 
rience of  utility,  to  fly  in  its  face  with  a  forecast 
of  a  transcendental  utility  that  supplies  the  world 
with  its  redeemers,  and  continually  drags  it  out  of 
the  snug  and  accurate  adjustment  of  selfishness  to 
which  it  arrives.  The  first  act  of  such  devoted 
self-surrender  might  have  been  imitated,  no  doubt ; 
and  a  few  men  in  ever}"  age,  having  learned  by  this 
means  that  a  higher  utility  resulted  from  doing  an 
apparently  useless  thing,  might  be  developed  by  a 
mixture  of  reason  and  sympathy  into  resisting  their 
fellows.  But  how  are  you  going  to  account  for 
the  first  act  ?  How  for  a  sentiment  of  violated 
justice,  if  justice  be  only  the  precipitate  of  average 
utility?  How  for  a  tender  love  for  remote  and 
invisible  suffering,  for  wrongs  that  are  a  nuisance 
at  too  great  a  distance  to  be  felt  or  observed,  if 
sympathy  is  nothing  but  an  understanding  among 
people  who  are  forced  to  live  together  ?  I  should 
as  soon  pretend  that  my  nostrils  were  afflicted  by  a 
bad  smell  that  was  transpiring  in  Siam. 

This  reminds  me  to  ask  how  any  particular  odor 
was  first  discovered  to  be  nauseous.  If  the  reply 
be  offered,  that  olfactory  discrimination  must  have 
resulted  from  experiences  of  the  effect  of  odors, 
gradually  acquired,  and  slowly  modifying  the  or- 
gan, I  say  that  the  process  must  have  begun  in  a 


BELIOION  AND  SCIENCE.  155 

capacity  to  perceive,  no  matter  how  imperfectly, 
that  a  scent  is  disagreeable.  What  is  that  previous 
capacity  ?  It  must  have  been  something  that  was 
not  created  by  the  scent.  It  is  no  objection  to  this 
that  people  differ  in  sensibility  for  odors,  so  that  a 
flower  may  be  disagreeable  to  one  and  pleasant  to 
another.  If  odors  create  the  organ  that  corre- 
sponds to  and  discriminates  them,  they  ought  to 
appear  the  same  to  everybody.  But  there  is  a 
latent  perception  that  varies  among  individuals, 
and  decides  their  favorite  perfumes ;  and  it  is 
curious  to  notice  how  they  correspond  to  mental 
characters,  and  seem  to  have  a  faint  analogy  with 
the  condition  of  the  moral  sense.  Discrimination 
in  smelling  could  not  have  been  originated  by  the 
things  that  were  smelt,  any  more  than  a  man's 
trail  or  blood-drip  must  have  preceded  and  created 
the  blood-hound's  tracking. 

The  moral  sense  to  which  we  have  attained  by 
stages  must  have  started  from  an  original  tendency 
to  become  sensitive  to  moral  acts.  We  cannot  say 
that  the  results  have  established  the  tendency,  any 
more  than  we  can  say  that  marks  of  design  have 
originated  a  designer  ;  that  an  eye,  for  instance, 
developed  light,  or  that  light  created  a  light-maker. 

The  phrases,  I  ought,  I  ought  not,  are  not  merely 
functional,  as  when  a  blood-hound  tracks,  a  pointer 
points,  a  watch-dog  listens  through  the  house.  We 
detect  even  in  the  animals  a  sense  of  duty  in  car- 
rying out  their  instincts,  and  a  deferring  to  man, 
as  if  to  a  source  of  the  instincts,  or  at  least  to  a 


156  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

power  that  holds  them  responsible  for  good  behav- 
ior. So  we  instinctively  refer  our  moral  attitude 
to  a  source  of  moral  law. 

It  is  possible  we  have  reached  a  moral  sense 
from  the  anticipatory  types  of  conscience  in  some 
animals,  by  drifting  along  with  them  through  Mr. 
Spencer's  experiences  of  utility  and  Mr.  Darwin's 
social  instincts.  But  a  latent  mental  tendency 
must  have  fallen  in  with  that  structural  drift  at 
some  point,  else  man  would  never  agonize  to  say, 
I  ought,  I  ought  not.  Is  it  any  the  less  divine  be- 
cause it  has  consorted  with  animals  and  savages, 
and  found  their  company  no  hinderance  to  this  elab- 
orating of  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong  ?  It  is  all 
the  more  divine,  because  it  betrays  conformity  with 
the  great  order  of  development,  at  the  same  time 
that  it  has  been  forereaching  through  it  to  perfect 
moral  actions. 

What  was  the  nature  of  John  Woolman's  secret 
satisfaction  when  he  insisted  upon  non-compliance 
with  the  habits  and  allowances  of  his  time  ?  If 
conscience  be  the  result  of  discovering  what  turns 
out  badly  for  a  person  who  is  living  on  the  scale 
of  other  persons,  why  should  he,  a  tailor,  have  dis- 
couraged the  making  and  wearing  of  fine  clothes  ; 
have  refused  to  touch,  to  his  own  serious  privation, 
one  of  the  products  of  slave  labor  ;  have  protested, 
to  the  loss  of  sympathy  and  gain  of  contempt, 
against  ownership  in  men  ?  Was  he  an  abnormal 
variety,  a  deteriorated  specimen,  a  man  whom  ad- 
vantage hurt  ?  Where  do  Mr.  Darwin's  social  in- 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  157 

stincts  come  in  ?  Woolman  withstood  all  these  for 
distant  and  abstract  incentives,  and  originated, with- 
out social  and  intellectual  material,  a  fresh  epoch 
of  moral  feeling.  The  latent  tendency  attained  to 
liberation  from  all  its  previous  experiences. 

One  of  the  bases  of  conscience  is  said  to  be  the 
intellectual  capacity  to  recall  past  impressions,  to 
compare  them  with  present  temptations,  and  to 
decide  upon  the  most  advantageous  action.  Pos- 
sibly ;  but  it  cannot  be  a  sine  qua  non,  as  we  see  in 
the  cases  of  those  uncultivated  souls  who  have  a 
new  scruple  or  a  sudden  heroism.  And  some  of 
the  best  intelligences  are  dull  and  uncertain  in  the 
moral  sense.  Is  it  because  they  are  at  the  same 
time  weak  in  the  social  instincts?  Some  very 
acute  and  long-headed  pirates  of  society  are  fond 
family-men,  love  to  gather  children  around  their 
knees,  have  sympathetic  impulses ;  and,  when  they 
are  not  on  a  plundering  excursion  among  widows 
and  orphans,  as  directors  of  mills,  railroads,  and 
trust  companies,  would  be  selected  to  found  a 
society  of  correct  men  in  consequence  of  immacu- 
late dicky  and  domesticity. 

The  lower  senses,  by  repeated  experiment  and 
observation,  acquire  an  unconscious,  automatic 
movement.  When  the  higher  senses  have  passed 
out  of  their  experimental  stages,  they  acquire  a 
spontaneous  movement.  In  the  region  of  intel- 
lectual and  moral  ideas  this  becomes  intuitive; 
that  is,  they  attain  to  a  power  of  looking  into 
themselves,  of  comparing  and  deducing,  and  also  of 


158  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

anticipating  other  ideas,  or  at  least  evolutions  from 
existing  ideas,  which  sometimes  lead  to  the  fore- 
feeling  of  a  law  of  nature  in  advance  of  its  con- 
firmation by  experiment,  —  as  when  Lucretius 
anticipated  moderns  with  a  theory  of  evolution, 
of  the  magnet,  and  of  the  constitution  of  the  sun ; 
and  Swedenborg  divined  fresh  planets  before  Le- 
verrier  was  furnished  with  the  calculus  which 
might  have  led  him  experimentally  to  the  fact ; 
or  when  Kepler  saw  dimly  in  his  mental  firmament 
the  law  to  which  at  length  the  sky  responded. 
This  was  latent  correspondence  with  the  law :  it 
was  stimulated  by  all  his  scientific  knowledge ; 
but  when  it  stepped  upon  planetary  ratios  into  a 
new  secret  of  creation,  it  announced  its  indepen- 
dence of  experience,  and  betrayed  a  similarity  in 
essence  with  the  Creator. 

Let  us  now  consider  if  this  latent  mentality, 
which  reaches  thus  to  independent  action,  has  any 
chance  of  surviving  the  dissolution  of  the  cerebral 
structure,  by  means  of  some  force,  called  Vitality, 
distinct  in  kind  from  all  the  physical  and  chemical 
forces  that  build  our  frame.  Naturalism  denies  a 
special  vitality,  because  it  is  so  engrossed  with 
showing  how  functions  develop  by  the  instrumen- 
tality of  human  forces :  it  affirms  that  the  whole 
drift  of  experimental  analogy  sets  against  the 
conception  of  another  force,  unless  it  be  one  that 
shall  differ  only  in  degree,  and  not  in  kind,  —  not  in 
essential  independence,  not  in  permanent  continu- 
ance, —  from  the  rest.  Observation  has  lifted  these 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  159 

forces  to  the  level  of  so  many  functions,  till  at 
length  it  has  detected  them  conspiring  in  the  ac- 
tion of  the  brain,  that  scientific  men  are  cautious 
about  predicating  the  existence  of  a  finer  force 
that  comes  to  use  the  deposits  of  the  brain-cells, 
or  that  is  exhaled  from  them  into  an  independent 
essence.  This  modesty  is  not  mistimed,  for  its 
singleness  of  purpose  supplies  marvellous  facts  and 
hints  about  the  human  organization  which  no  relig- 
ion can  afford  to  do  without.  It  is  childish  to  be 
afraid  of  their  tendency,  and  weak  to  declare  that 
they  yet  decide  the  question. 

What  is  Vitality  ?  I  notice,  in  the  first  place, 
that  our  common  contrast  of  animate  and  inanimate 
—  which  means,  when  we  make  it,  that  we  believe 
that  the  former  could  not  have  been  developed 
from  the  latter — is  really  only  a  contrast  derived 
from  a  general  optical  impression.  We  think  we 
see  that  one  object  is  alive  and  that  another  is  not, 
and  our  sight  applies  the  tests  which  experience 
has  preconceived  as  being  correspondent  to  life 
and  to  death.  But  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
origins  of  life,  which  are  removed  from  us  by  im- 
mense duration,  and  thus  far,  if  they  are  still  going 
on,  by  inadequate  means  of  observation,  must  be 
distinct  acts  of  germs  that  exist  in  a  plane  apart 
from  the  inanimate.  They  may  have  been,  and 
may  still  be,  evolutions  through  forces  out  of  inan- 
imate matter.  Inanimate  may  be  only  latent  ani- 
mate. 

But  I  think  we  ought  to  discard  this  old-fash- 


160  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

ioned  contrast,  and  substitute  the  terms  organic 
and  inorganic  ;  for  a  bit  of  wood  or  stone  will  show, 
beneath  the  most  powerful  microscope,  a  gathering 
and  shifting  of  granules,  a  confused  intermingling, 
that  is  enough  to  betray  motion  at  least,  and  to 
put  us  on  the  track  of  the  suggestion  that  a  prim- 
itive ocean  of  germs  was  set  on  its  creative  way  by 
motion.  Nothing,  then,  can  be  called  inanimate 
that  contains  the  first  quality  or  essential  towards 
vitality.  But  it  may  be  called  inorganic  if  its  struct- 
ure admits  of  passing  to  no  other  function.  An 
organism  is  something  that  announces  vital  force 
or  function ;  that  gathers  the  universal  cells,  gran- 
ules, cytods  —  or  whatever  you  may  please  to  call 
protoplastic  stuff  —  into  some  definite  gesture, 
however  faint,  and  begins  to  use  the  inorganic  to 
nourish  and  sustain  its  organs. 

Mr.  Beale,  an  eminent  advocate  for  a  special 
and  indestructible  vitality  in  man,  says  :  •'  If  a  par- 
ticle of  living  matter,  not  more  than  yfroVoT  °f  au 
inch  in  diameter,  were  made  in  the  laboratory  out 
of  non-living  matter,  —  if  it  lived  and  moved,  and 
grew  and  multiplied,  —  I  confess  my  belief  in  the 
spiritual  nature  of  my  faculties  would  be  severely 
shaken." 

Why  should  it  be  shaken  any  more  than  if  it 
should  turn  out  to  be  true  that  living  matter  orig- 
inated the  spiritual  nature  ?  It  is  certain  that  liv- 
ing matter  is  instrumental  in  expressing  our 
faculties,  whatever  their  origin  may  have  been. 
Then  of  what  consequence  is  it  whence  the  living 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  1G1 

matter  is  derived?  We  are  not  appalled  at  the 
possibility  that  organic  matter  may  be  made  out  of 
non-living  —  or,  more  properly,  inorganic — mat- 
ter. We  are  nerved  for  such  a  result,  whether  it 
occur  in  the  laboratory  or  in  nature,  by  the  con- 
viction that  the  spiritual  functions  are  no  more 
imperilled  by  using  matter  originated  in  any  way, 
than  the  Creator  hazarded  his  existence  by  orig- 
inating matter  in  some  way  to  be  used  by  himself 
and  by  us.  His  vitality  resides  in  the  whole  of 
matter  ;  so  that,  even  if  the  inorganic  be  convertible 
into  the  organic,  or  the  organic  into  the  inorganic, 
he  has  to  no  extent  fallen  dead.  Then  there  can 
be  no  danger  to  our  mind  that  may  result  from 
either  process,  to  the  mind  that  may  receive  its 
material  instrument  from  either. 

There  is  nothing  really  inanimate  in  all  creation  ; 
ior  the  Infinite  Life  has  gone  into  representation 
by  each  of  its  epochs,  from  the  primordial  germinal 
matter  through  all  its  evolutions  :  no  form  or  result 
of  it  can  be  dead.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  death, 
but  an  incessant  shifting  into  and  out  of  all  forms. 
The  stone  arrests  for  the  present  the  shifting,  but 
it  must  have  a  certain  kind  of  life  in  itself  in  order 
to  do  that,  —  something  that  tends  to  be  not  long 
or  constantly  arrested,  that  is  all  the  time  vaguely 
tumultuous  with  its  imprisoned  particles.  If  any 
thing  could  be  really  dead,  God  would,  to  that 
thing's  extent,  cease  to  be  alive. 

I  have  sometimes  indulged  the  speculation  that 
the  molecular  activity  observable  in  inorganic  sub- 

11 


162  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

stances  is  a  degeneration  of  the  germinal  activity 
which  is  observable  in  the  amoeba  and  other  vital 
stuff.  That  is,  I  suppose  that  the  germinal  has 
preceded  the  molecular  activity  ;  and  that  all 
stones,  minerals,  and  gems  were  held  positively 
vital  in  the  original  nebulosity,  —  in  that  ocean  of 
creative  germs,  which  was  not  inorganic,  though  it 
was  undetermined.  What  we  call  dead  matter  is 
the  excrement  of  a  germinal  universe  ;  but  it  may 
still  go  into  fertilizing,  and  is  doing  it,  perhaps,  all 
the  time.  It  once  shared  the  life  of  all  germs, 
though  it  now  seems  to  have  become  inert  and 
solid  merely  to  build  continents  for  the  support  of 
vital  forms.  The  word  inert  cannot  represent  an 
absolute  fact  of  death,  but  only  a  relative  condition 
of  vitality. 

But  what  is  vitality  in  a  human  structure  ?  It 
may  be  only  a  part  of  the  universal  vitality,  raised 
to  very  high  conditions,  or  it  may  be  a  special  mode 
of  it ;  but  in  either  case  I  do  not  see  why  it  does 
not  share  the  universal  advantage  of  being  inde- 
structible. "  Yes,"  says  the  scientific  man  ;  "  but 
it  also  must  share  the  universal  tendency  of  forces 
to  shift  into  force  again  when  the  structure  that 
contains  them  is  destroj-ed.  The  man's  vitality 
may  still  exist,  but  only  in  some  mode  of  imper- 
sonal force,  as  motion  shifts  into  heat.  When  all 
the  known  forces  are  discovered  constantly  at  this 
interplay,  we  cannot  assume  that  another  force,  yet 
undiscovered,  will  be  differently  endowed."  What 
have  we  got  to  say  to  that  ? 


RELIGION  AND    SCIENCE.  163 

The  only  attempt  which  I  have  noticed,  of 
purely  scientific  pretension,  at  an  answer,  is  con- 
tained in  a  paper  on  Vitality,  read  by  the  Rev.  H. 
H.  Higgins,  M.A.,  before  the  Literary  and  Philo- 
sophical Society  of  Liverpool.  He  says :  "  The 
most  delicate  tests  for  indicating  minute  changes 
in  electrical,  thermal,  and  other  conditions,  have 
been  applied  at  the  moment  of  death,  and  have 
shown  no  sign.  Now  it  is  certain  of  the  forces  of 
heat,  light,  motion,  &c.,  that  they  are  absolutely 
indestructible  :  they  may  be  converted  one  into  the 
other,  but  they  cannot  cease  to  exist.  If  the  vital 
principle  was  analogous  to  these  agencies,  it  might 
escape  in  any  one  of  them  ;  but  of  this  no  well- 
ascertained  trace  has  been  observed  in  any  investi- 
gation of  the  phenomena  of  death." 

But  this  statement  proves  too  much.  If  the 
tests  applied  at  the  moment  of  death  discover  no 
force  at  all  in  the  act  of  escaping,  it  only  shows 
that  no  force  at  all  is  discoverable  under  the  con- 
ditions of  a  dying  moment.  But  we  know  that 
thermal  and  electrical  conditions  exist  in  the  func- 
tions of  a  living  body  :  they  ought,  then,  to  be 
intercepted  as  they  pass  away.  Where,  for  in- 
stance, does  the  thermal  condition  go,  and  why 
should  it  not  be  seen  in  going  ?  For  it  certainly 
existed  just  before  the  moment  of  dying,  and  for 
some  time  after.  This,  then,  is  not  a  decisive  test 
of  the  undetectable  presence  of  a  special  vitality. 

This  is  the  question.  If  there  be  specific  vitality, 
does  it  escape  from  death  with  the  mental  contents 


164  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

of  the  person  whose  body  died,  to  prolong  his  iden- 
tity, or  is  it  only  another  physical  force,  though  a 
specific  one,  with  character  distinct  from  heat, 
light,  &c.,  but  still  a  force  that  joins  after  death 
the  unconscious  equilibrium  out  of  which  it  first 
allied  itself  to  a  human  organization  ? 

To  call  vitality  specific,  and  to  claim  that  it  is 
prior  to  organization,  does  not  answer  the  above 
question. 

All  the  steps  of  modern  investigation  seem  to 
disprove  the  theory  of  personal  continuance.  Func- 
tions of  the  body  which  were  long  supposed  to 
depend  upon  a  specific  vitality  are  now  referred  to 
known  chemical  forces,  and  are  repeated  in  the 
laboratory.  The  theory  is  pushed  from  post  to 
post,  till  it  seems  to  have  only  a  base  of  moral 
probability  to  fall  back  upon. 

Far  from  undervaluing  that,  —  finding,  on  the 
contrary,  in  the  manifestations  of  personal  charac- 
ter a  hint  of  immortality  that  is  superior  to,  at 
least,  the  resurrection  of  any  dead  body,  —  I  still 
claim  that  science  is  not  so  neutral  on  this  question 
as  it  thinks  to  be.  I  am  quite  content  to  wait  for 
some  special  investigation  of  the  point,  while  the 
co-ordination  of  all  phenomena  by  mental  laws  that 
explain  creative  acts,  and  refer  us  back  to  a  pre- 
existing mind,  shows  me,  with  the  emphasis  of  a 
universe,  that  the  minds  which  can  interpret  and 
spiritually  reconstruct  the  plan  of  creation  must 
share  the  nature  of  a  Creator.  It  is  his  nature  to 
have  pre-existed  distinct  from  his  germinal  mate- 


EELIQION  AND  SCIENCE.  165 

rial.  It  must  be  the  nature  of  corresponding  mind 
to  be  distinct  from  its  germinal  material,  to  have 
been  allied  to  human  structures  in  a  state  of  latent 
mentality. 

I  own  I  find  it  difficult  to  conceive  how  this 
latent  mind  was  gradually  developed  out  of  the 
structures  that  passed  through  animal  into  human 
conditions.  It  seems  at  first  as  if  the  mental  qual- 
ity must  have  been  homogeneous  through  all  its 
gradations.  In  what  manner  could  it  have  begun 
to  be  different  in  kind  from  itself  as  it  was  in  its 
previous  animal  expressions  ?  At  first,  in  trying 
to  meet  that  question,  we  appear  to  be  driven  to 
put  up  with  one  of  two  alternatives :  either  that 
the  animals  have  shared  independent  vitality,  if  we 
have  ;  or  that  we  started  from  germinal  soul- 
monads  that  were  outside  of,  and  previous  to, 
physical  structure,  but  were  in  some  way  attracted 
to  all  the  points  of  human  development. 

But  I  suggest  whether  there  can  be  any  germinal 
soul-substance  except  the  mysterious  force  which 
we  call  vitality  wherever  we  see  it  in  the  human 
state.  It  went  into  creation  allied  with  all  the 
germs  which  have  subsequently  taken  form.  It 
carried  everywhere  a  latent  sensibility  for  the  crea- 
tive law  out  of  which  it  came.  It  swept  along 
with  a  dim  drift  of  the  Personality  that  first  con- 
ceived it  and  then  put  it  on  the  way  to  self- 
expression.  It  mounted  thus  by  the  ascending 
scale  of  animals,  and  its  improvements  in  structure 
were  preparations  to  reach  and  repeat  Personality, 


166  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

to  report  the  original  sense  of  the  Creator  that  he 
was  independent  of  structure.  At  length  it  be- 
came detached  from  the  walls  of  the  womb  of 
creation,  held  only  for  nourishment  by  the  cord  of 
structure,  till  it  could  have  a  birth  into  individual- 
ism. Then  the  interplay  of  mind  and  organism 
began,  with  an  inherited  advantage  in  favor  of 
vitality.  Now  vitality,  thus  developed  and  crys- 
tallized into  personality,  tends  constantly  back 
towards  its  origin.  The  centrifugal  movement 
through  all  the  animals  is  rectified  by  the  centrip- 
etal movement  in  man.  The  whole  series  of  effects 
recurs  to  an  effecting  cause. 

At  any  rate,  it  is  quite  as  difficult  to  conceive 
that  there  were  pre-existent  soul-germs  which 
could  be  attracted  from  without  to  human  em- 
bryos, to  become  their  vital  and  characteristic 
forces,  as  it  is  to  frame  a  clear  statement  of  the 
way  in  which  independent  minds  became  devel- 
oped out  of  all  the  previous  animal  and  semi-hu- 
man conditions.  How  or  when  could  a  soul-monad 
become  buried  in  a  foetal  form?  If  such  an  act 
could  take  place,  it  would  break  up  the  inherited 
transmission  of  characters ;  for  it  is  not  credible 
that  every  door  of  descent  is  waylaid  and  watched 
by  just  the  style  of  soul-germs  that  can  straightway 
be  at  home  and  carry  on  the  business  at  the  old 
stand.  It  is  plain  that  the  whole  process  of  evo- 
lution of  vitality  into  personal  consciousness  must 
take  place  within  the  limits  of  human  structure, 
and  that  the  child  is  father  of  the  man. 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  167 

Could  the  unconscious  form  of  the  embryo  select 
its  appropriate  soul-germ,  and  detach  it  from  the 
world-cluster  to  absorb  and  incorporate  it  through 
the  mother  ?  By  what  nicety  of  instinct  or  affinity, 
could  the  moment  of  fertilization,  or  a  subsequent 
moment  of  the  foetal  throb,  pick  out  of  some  great 
ether  of  vital  monads  just  the  proper  soul-germ,  so 
that  each  human  family  might  propagate  its  traits 
and  accumulate  its  ancestors  ?  It  is  impossible  to 
conceive  of  any  descent  or  amplification  of  vitality 
except  in  the  direct  line  of  fructification,  concep- 
tion, and  birth. 

It  is  not  absurd,  then,  to  suppose  that  each 
human  being  started  from  a  finite  beginning.  He 
pre-existed  only  in  the  impulse  of  vitality.  It 
is  objected  that,  if  he  was  not  an  actual  essence  or 
monad  that  pre-existed  before  his  finite  structure 
was  brought  up  to  the  felicity  of  receiving  it,  he 
could  not  continue  after  the  physical  structure 
had  disappeared.  Why  not  ?  Personal  continu- 
ance need  not  be  supposed  to  depend  upon  any 
special  moment  of  eternal  creative  ness  from  which 
the  person  may  have  started.  It  might  be  early  or 
late  :  in  Judaea,  Greece,  or  California.  When  a 
person  starts,  he  need  not  be  imagined  to  stop 
until  the  infinite  Personality  out  of  which  he 
started  declines  to  project  the  vitality  that  propa- 
gates persons.  If  there  be  such  a  fact  as  personal 
continuance,  it  must  depend  only  upon  the  impulse 
of  vitality. 

It  does  not  trouble  me  that  I  cannot  put  my  fin- 


1G8  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

ger  on  the  period  of  human  development  when 
man  began  to  have  independent  personality.  Who 
can  tell  when  a  child  begins  to  have  a  conscious- 
ness of  self,  and  to  say  /,  with  a  distinct  feeling 
of  what  his  speech  involves  ?  Yet  at  length  he  is 
found  to  be  saying  it,  and  to  be  converting  the 
identity  of  consciousness  into  personal  character. 
Ages  of  semi-human  conditions  may  have  pre- 
ceded, as  years  of  characterless  infancy  precede, 
the  assertion  of  personal  identity.  The  men  of 
those  developing  ages  may  have  perished  like  ants 
that  swarm  in  the  pathway  of  feet.  What  of  that, 
if  a  day  comes  that  speaks  an  imperishable  word  ? 

That  word  is,  I  know  Unity,  I  share  Unity,  I 
pass  into  consciousness  of  Creative  Laws,  I  touch 
the  Mind  from  whom  my  mental  method  started, 
and  I  thus  become  that  circle's  infrangibility.  My 
law  of  perceiving  is  so  complete  an  expression  of 
the  law  of  creating,  that  I  perceive,  as  the  Creator 
once  perceived,  that  matter  alone  could  not  start 
with  it  nor  end  in  it.  I  know  the  laws  which 
matter  did  not  make.  Then  matter  does  not  make 
iny  knowledge. 

Science  grants  me  this  inestimable  benefit  of  pro- 
viding a  universe  to  support  my  personal  identity,  my 
moral  sense,  and  my  feeling  that  these  two  functions 
of  mind  cannot  be  killed.  Its  denials,  no  less  than 
its  affirmations,  set  free  all  the  facts  I  need  to  make 
my  body  an  expression  of  mental  independence. 
Hand  in  hand  with  Science  I  go,  by  the  steps  of 
development,  back  to  the  dawn  of  creation ;  and, 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  169 

when  there,  we  review  all  the  forces  and  their 
combinations  which  have  helped  us  to  arrive,  and 
both  of  us  together  break  into  a  confession  of  a 
Force  of  forces. 

Science  has  performed  a  mighty  work  against  the- 
ology, in  freeing  us  from  its  superstitions.  We  have 
picked  ourselves  up  from  Adam's  fall,  and  are  busy 
shaking  that  dust  from  our  garments ;  geological 
cemeteries,  full  of  dead  creatures,  speak  to  exon- 
erate us  from  the  unhandsome  trick  of  having 
brought  death  and  sin  into  the  world  ;  we  shake 
the  tree  of  knowledge,  and  woman  helps  us  to 
shake  it  and  devour  the  invigorating  fruit ;  there's 
nothing  edible  which  we  do  not  perceive  to  be  a 
divine  invitation  to  eat,  with  a  conviction  that  the 
great  Landlord  is  not  plotting  murder  to  pillage 
our  persons.  We  feel  perfectly  safe  in  every  part 
of  the  house,  and  are  learning  how  to  promote  the 
interests  of  the  Builder,  by  clearing  out  corners 
that  grow  infectious,  and  correcting  our  own  care- 
lessness ;  so  that  there  is  not  a  slur  left  to  cast 
upon  God.  Death  is  discovered  to  be  a  process 
of  correlation  and  recombination  of  force  ;  and  we 
detect  Heaven's  wonderful  footprint,  that  can  never 
be  mistaken,  in  the  paths  of  evil.  Only  let  us 
know  enough,  re-enforce  every  gift  with  the  bene- 
ficial facts,  irrigate  the  whole  surface  of  the  mind 
with  law,  that  our  structures  may  more  happily 
repeat  the  health  that  mantles  on  the  face  of  a 
universe. 

Scientific  men  find  themselves  in  opposition  to 


170  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

almost  every  form  of  theology,  because  the  world 
is :  they  have  no  personal  motive,  and  indulge  in 
pique  no  more  than  the  great  system  whose  move- 
ments and  causes  they  express.  But  theology  has 
so  systematically  libelled  the  Creator  and  misled 
the  creature ;  so  deliberately  substituted  trains  of 
arbitrary  thinking  for  the  law  of  Evolution  ;  so 
depraved  God  by  pretending  the  depravity  of  man, 
to  make  a  jailer  of  one  and  a  felon  of  the  other ;  so 
placarded  the  spotless  plan  with  whimsical  schemes 
of  redemption ;  and  so  represented  the  universal 
love,  as  if  it  were  confectionery  to  stop  the  whim- 
per of  returning  sinners,  —  that  Science  might  well 
transfix  it  with  the  contempt  of  a  gaze  that  is  level 
with  the  horizon,  and  as  brimful  hot  with  the  noon- 
day sun. 

When  the  great  observers  are  accused  of  disre- 
spect towards  religion,  it  would  be  well  to  remem- 
ber how  long,  and  to  a  period  how  late,  men  have 
understood  religion  to  be  something  that  is  brought 
down  by  modified  systems  of  theology,  and  to  be 
dependent  upon  an  act  of  faith  in  them.  Science 
takes  men  at  their  word  ;  they  point  to  a  number 
of  articles  that  embody  mental  propositions  ;  they 
extol  emotional  and  mystic  states,  and  exclaim, 
Behold,  here  is  something  better  than  good  behav- 
ior, better  than  health,  superior  to  scientific  inter- 
pretation,—  behold  Religion!  Science,  armed  with 
all  its  glasses,  curiously  investigates  this  portent 
that  assumes  to  be  divinely  accredited,  and  cannot 
discover  a  single  germinal  dot,  not  a  bit  of  plasma, 


RELIGION  AND  SCIENCE.  171 

that  might  make .  one  honest  animalcule  of  a  spir- 
itual man. 

In  the  mean  time,  real  religion  is  busy  with  moral 
sense,  right  mental  method,  true  social  feeling, 
ecstatic  vision  of  the  divine  order,  to  appropriate 
every  genuine  fact  and  put  it  to  service  in  its 
scheme  of  humanity.  However  violently  science 
may  pretend  to  be  hostile  to  religion,  there  is  noth- 
ing in  the  world  so  religious  as  its  method  and 
tndustiy.  For  religion,  instead  of  being,  according 
to  the  old  definitions,  a  restoration  of  rebellious 
human  nature  to  divine  favor,  attained  by  theolog- 
ical beliefs  and  emotional  practices,  by  prayer  and 
praise,  by  pietistic  exaltations  and  homiletic  ab- 
sorption, is  simply  the  recurrence  of  human  nature 
to  the  facts  of  the  universe. 

At  first,  this  definition  seems  to  be  a  dry,  prag- 
matic one,  fit  only  to  express  that  old  function  of 
theology  which  was  imperfectly  exercised  by  it  in 
metaphysical  notions  about  the  divine  plan  and 
nature.  Theology  always  presumed  that  its  state- 
ments represented  facts.  But  religion,  recovering 
of  late  from  mediatorial  emotions,  enlists  intelli- 
gence, arms  itself  with  a  mental  method  that  is  the 
counterpart  of  the  divine  plan,  and  casts  loose  for 
ever  from  the  speculations  of  theology.  Then  it 
assumes  the  function  of  indicating  realities ;  and 
every  fact  it  gathers  is  a  proclamation  of  God's  law, 
or  will,  or  wisdom,  and  an  invitation  to  man  to  be 
on  healthy  terms  with  these  attributes.  In  recur- 
ring to  the  facts  of  a  universe,  man  recurs  most 


172  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

sensibly  to  God.  But  this  gesture  can  be  made 
only  with  the  help  of  intelligence.  Facts  must  be 
taught  and  known,  not  metaphysical  contrivances 
or  scriptural  formulas.  The  brain  must  learn  to 
act  upon  its  own  facts,  in  order  to  present  the 
world  with  a  body  in  normal  condition  to  perform 
a  normal  work.  The  relation  between  the  finite 
and  infinite  must  be  found  upon  lines  of  forces  and 
stepping-stones  of  laws,  not  upon  phrases  and  cer- 
emonies. These  weave  no  features  of  the  infinite 
into  our  life.  As  well  might  a  woman  expect  by 
knitting  to  embroider  the  zodiacal  light  upon  her 
stocking.  If  she  croons  a  favorite  hymn  of  Watts 
or  Toplady  over  her  work,  the  sky  is  still  too  cun- 
ning to  descend,  being  content  to  overlook  her 
patient  labor  and  to  light  the  daily  steps  of  the 
little  feet  she  covers.  Her  automatic  action  is  su- 
perior, for  religion,  to  all  her  darling  sentiment. 

I  close  by  noticing  that  science  benefits  religion 
with  hints  at  a  more  practical  treatment  for  the 
objects  of  moral  and  spiritual  culture.  The  tech- 
nical results  of  scientific  observation  now  begin  to 
enrich  every  department  of  life,  as  they  flow  into 
the  kitchen  and  workshop,  and  down  all  the  streets ; 
so  that  a  man  may  draw  at  his  door  health  and  men- 
tal nourishment,  and  find  an  alarm-box  in  every 
ward  that  will  report  whatever  threatens  sanity  and 
comfort.  All  the  kingdoms  of  nature  contribute 
their  economical  facts,  which  slowly  find  their  way 
into  social  science,  into  the  methods  of  domestic 
life,  into  education  and  amusement.  Man  was 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  173 

never  so  sumptuously  served  before  with  things 
to  depend  upon.  He  learns  what  to  eat,  drink,  and 
wear,  how  to  ventilate  his  dwellings  and  to  build 
his  fire.  The  most  inventive  minds  teach  him 
labor-saving  processes,  which  aspire  even  to  regu- 
late and  economize  religion.  This  prompt  and 
convenient  way  of  life  begets  a  desire  for  facts: 
we  want  nothing  encumbering  the  house  that  we 
cannot  use ;  theories  go  into  the  waste-basket,  with 
a  good  many  superfine  emotions  that  were  once 
thought  to  be  essential  to  a  spiritual  life.  Some- 
times, by  picking  over  the  basket,  we  discover  that 
gifts  very  dear  to  the  household,  legacies  of  eter- 
nity, have  been  hastily  thrown  there,  in  the  greed 
for  clearing  out  all  the  corners  and  ambushes  for 
rubbish,  to  have  nothing  around  that  is  not  port- 
able and  ready  for  immediate  use. 

This  tendency  to  bring  the  art  of  living  down  to 
its  practical  minimum  has  gone  so  far  that  some 
sources  of  spiritual  culture  have  fallen  into  dis- 
credit. The  newspaper,  the  lecture-room,  the 
scientific  cabinet,  the  technological  school,  the  spe- 
cial platform,  is  commended :  men  crave  exactness 
and  the  current  intelligence.  They  long  to  live 
creditably  in  the  present,  because  they  have  dis- 
covered it  is  the  master  of  the  future.  And  Amer- 
ican pulpits  have  certainly  earned  the  distrust,  if 
not  contempt,  of  the  more  robust  portion  of  the 
people,  by  approaching  all  the  critical  moments  of 
the  private  or  public  life  with  their  pill,  their  plas- 
ter, or  buchu,  as  they  sound  the  trumpet  of  the 


174  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

quack  before  them  in  the  market-place,  to  call  their 
livelihood  together. 

There  is  something  which  may  be  called  the 
vestry-sentiment,  that  acts  like  choke-damp  upon 
all  natural  ideas ;  it  will  breathe  an  artificial  com- 
pound, or  prefer  to  be  asphyxiated.  A  badly  ven- 
tilated Scripture  is  responsible  for  these  moods, 
which  cower  over  their  little  pile  of  smouldering 
texts,  and  shudder  and  protest  at  leaving  all  the 
doors  ajar.  It  is  nourished  upon  phrases  in  books 
of  mediatorial  piety,  and  drops  theatre-tears  over 
its  futile  feeling  of  dependence,  its  consciousness 
of  sin,  or  faded  appreciation  of  good  behavior.  Its 
disciples  are  the  victims  of  fatty  degeneration 
when  it  is  their  boast  that  they  are  nothing  but 
heart.  To  some  of  the  churches  of  this  want  of 
faith,  intelligence  has  penetrated  far  enough  to 
excite  suspicions  that  the  old  phraseology  has  been 
outgrown ;  they  are  almost  ready  to  espouse  the 
new  Bibles  of  human  information  and  enthusiasm, 
not  quite  ready  to  cast  off  the  damaged  phraseology 
of  the  clerical  believers  in  miracles  and  grace :  so 
that  they  remind  one  of  the  garret  of  the  eminent 
but  rather  penurious  lawyer,  which  was  found, 
after  his  decease,  filled  with  suits  of  clothes,  each 
labelled,  "  Too  old  to  wear,  but  too  good  to  give 
away." 

Verbal  statements  of  imaginary  relations  between 
man  and  God,  set  off  with  appeals  to  a  kind  of 
average  religiosity,  compose  the  sanitary  method 
of  such  churches.  It  lets  more  blood  than  it  makes : 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  175 

precious  life-drops  of  the  common  people,  squan- 
dered in  artificial  excitements,  in  political  com- 
promises, and  in  the  awful  campaigns  that  restore 
natural  religion  to  mankind. 

A  better  method  will  set  in  whenever  the  pulpit 
prefers  confirmed  realities,  and  looks  for  them  in 
every  province  that  the  wit  of  man  visits,  —  when 
the  only  question  it  asks  relative  to  any  subject  is, 
What  are  the  facts  ?  Let  us  know  the  conclusion 
of  the  best  minds  and  the  most  devoted  hearts,  let 
us  preach  the  salvation  that  intelligence  reveals. 
Open  wide  the  door  of  the  meeting-house,  so  that 
the  six  days  can  wheel  up  to  it,  and  deposit  what 
the  earth  and  sky  manufacture,  all  the  certainties 
of  all  the  arts,  and  every  emotion  that  bears  the 
stamp  of  sincerity. 

Nothing  can  come  amiss,  if  it  comes  from  a  quar- 
ter where  honest  handwork  or  head-work  has  been 
engaged.  '  The  whole  universe  is  let  down  to  the 
level  of  the  preacher's  desk,  creeping  things  as 
well  as  winged.  The  voice  says  :  "  Slay  and  eat 
them,  for  there  is  nothing  common  or  unclean  that 
God  has  made."  Nature  has  sometimes  furnished 
the  pulpit  with  illustrations  :  she  is  ready  now  to 
provide  the  texts  and  substance  also,  and  to  occupy 
the  whole  discourse. 

But  the  treatment  must  be  ideal.  All  the  facts, 
after  passing  through  the  technical  treatment  of 
the  platform,  the  lecture-room,  and  scientific  ses- 
sion, to  receive  their  diplomas  of  utility,  must 
come  into  the  pulpit  bringing  mankind  with  them, 


176  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

as  into  a  place  where  separate  localities  can  be  seen 
to  melt  into  one  broad  horizon,  stretching  so  far 
that  eternity  is  overtaken  and  included,  and  the 
souls  of  the  spectators  are  greatly  ennobled  to 
perceive  that  all  their  little  functions  build  the 
endless  view. 

What  is  ideal  treatment  ?  A  kind  that  is  nei- 
ther metaphysical  nor  traditional.  It  is  not  the 
investiture  of  subjects  with  a  poetical  form,  nor 
the  speculative  infirmity  that  broods  upon  an 
empty  nest.  There  must  be  a  real  egg  beneath, 
for  warmth  and  devoted  patience  to  quicken.  The 
ideal  treatment  is  that  deference  to  the  natural  law 
which  puts  the  breath  of  life  into  every  thing  and 
person  ;  for  laws  are  congenial  to  the  imagination, 
having  indeed  been  often  suckled  in  her  open  air, 
and  thence  adopted  by  the  family  of  man.  They 
can  never  quarrel  with  her  genuine  emotions.  It 
would  be  strange,  indeed,  if  one  function  of  our 
intelligence  should  contradict  or  disable  another. 
In  fact,  the  test  of  the  sacredness  of  any  feeling 
will  be  that  Law  can  comfortably  dwell  with  it ; 
and  the  test  of  the  genuineness  of  Law  will  be 
that  it  discriminates  the  truly  sacred  feelings  from 
moods  which  counterfeit,  and  proffers  to  the  former 
the  alliance  of  a  universe.  Religion's  work  is  so 
sweet  and  awe-inspiring  that  it  resents  the  waste 
of  time  in  manipulating  the  sentimental  preference 
of  people  who  want  their  whims  to  be  protected 
against  laws.  It  perceives  that  the  sacramental 
attitude  is  less  adorable  than  its  own  worship  of 


RELIGION  AND   SCIENCE.  177 

Truth  and  Beauty,  whose  elements  it  distributes 
to  all  communicants,  pronouncing  them  to  be  the 
body  and  the  blood  of  every  soul. 

Science  and  religion  may  together  undertake  the 
task  of  showing  that  the  earth,  the  air,  the  water, 
swarm  with  vital  germs ;  that  no  substance  is  too 
solid  to  resist  their  penetration,  none  too  thin  to 
support  them  ;  that  man  himself  is  a  compendium 
of  them,  and  in  his  soul  they  find  a  tongue  to  ex- 
press how  religious  they  are,  how  implicated  with 
the  life  and  love  of  the  Creator.  Ideal  treatment 
sets  forth  the  ideas  that  correspond  to  every  fact 
and  circumstance.  It  is  bent  upon  proving  that 
they  arise  in  the  soul,  and  are  not  transitory  views, 
or  impressions  depending  upon  the  position  of  the 
spectator,  or  digested  from  his  food ;  that  they 
have  a  continuity  in  the  laws  of  nature  and  in 
the  persons  of  men  and  women,  and  are  thus  con- 
nected with  the  moral  order,  are  self-sustaining, 
and  derive  no  authority  from  any  source  save 
Nature  herself ;  and  that  the  only  religious  certi- 
tude we  can  enjoy  is  provided  by  the  harmony 
between  things,  necessities,  organizations,  and  the 
laws  of  things. 


12 


178  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 


CHRISTIANITY    AND    ITS    DEFINITIONS. 
BY  WILLIAM  J.  POTTEK. 

TT  is  a  most  significant  gauge  of  the  distance 
•*•     which  Christendom  has  travelled  away  from 
the  primitive  conditions  of  the  Christian  faith,  that 
the  question  is  now  everywhere  earnestly  discussed 
within  the  limits  of  Christendom  itself,  what  Chris- 
tianity is.     In  the  early  days,  unbelievers  from  the 
outside  are  reported  to  have  pressed  around  the 
apostles  to  ask  what  the  new  doctrine  was  whereof 
they  spoke.      But   we   can   hardly   imagine  that 
there  was  any  inquiry  of  this  kind  among  those 
who  had  caught  the  holy  contagion  of  the  new 
religion,  and  with  whom  it  was  an  enthusiasm  of 
the  heart  rather  than  a  conviction  of  the  under- 
standing.     There   was  a   warm   dispute,  indeed, 
between  Paul  and  some  of  the  leading  apostles  of 
the  original  twelve ;  a  dispute  which,  we  can  now 
see,  indirectly  involved  very  vital  issues  bearing 
on  the  development  of  Christianity.     And  we  may 
easily  find,  too,  in  the  New  Testament,  the  germs, 
perhaps,    of    all   the   different   interpretations    of 
Christianity  that  have   been  made ;  for  it  is  ap- 
parent that  the  new  faith  presented,  even  in  the 
earliest  days,  somewhat   different  aspects  to  dif- 
ferent classes  of  believers,  according  to  the  angle 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     179 

of  mental  or  moral  condition  from  which  it  was 
met  and  accepted.|  Still,  those  primitive  believers 
all  gathered  at  the  same  rallying-cry,  and  saw  at 
the  centre  of  Christianity  essentially  the  same 
thing ;  and  in  the  dispute  between  Paul  and  the 
other  apostles  the  only  question  actually  raised 
was  with  reference  to  the  amount  of  ceremony  to 
be  required  of  Gentile  converts :  there  seems  to 
have  been  no  division  as  to  the  substance  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

But  now  the  question  debated  is,  What  is  Chris- 
tianity itself?  What  is  that  which  has  given  it  its 
peculiar  character  and  power?  What  the  vital 
elements  that  define  it  as  a  specific  religion?  And 
to  this  question,  What  is  Christianity  ?  nearly  as 
many  answers  will  be  given  as  there  are  Christian 
sects  ;  for  each  of  the  sects  has  originated  in  some- 
thing which  its  members  have  regarded  as  essential 
to  Christianity,  and  which  they  have  not  found  in 
the  other  sects.  Leaving  aside,  however,  minor 
differences  of  belief,  and  all  differences  in  regard  to 
ecclesiastical  administration  merely,  we  may  group 
the  various  definitions  of  Christianity  in  some 
three  or  four  divisions  around  a  few  prominent, 
distinguishing  points ;  though  the  separate  groups 
will  shade  into  each  other  by  imperceptible  grada- 
tions of  denominational  and  individual  belief. 

First,  we  have  what  may  be  called  the  Orthodox- 
evangelical  definition,  —  the  definition  which  has 
prevailed  most  largely  in  Christendom,  and  which 
is  still  maintained  by  the  vast  majority  of  the 


180  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

adherents  of  the  Christian  church.  This  definition 
is  that  Christianity  is  a  system  of  religion  which 
rests  on  the  recognition  of  .Jesus  of  Nazareth  as 
the  supernaturally  commissioned  and  therefore 
authoritative  and  infallible  revealer  of  spiritual 
truth,  as  the  Messiah  of  the  world  and  the  Saviour 
of  mankind.  There  is  room  for  wide  latitude  of 
difference  in  respect  both  to  dogma  and  ecclesias- 
tical forms  among  those  who  set  out  with  this 
definition.  One  may  accept  the  trinity  or  reject 
it ;  may  believe  in  vicarious  atonement  and  salva- 
tion through  Jesus'  death  on  the  cross,  or  only  in 
simple  mediatorship  through  his  character  and  life  ; 
may  be  a  Catholic  or  a  Protestant,  —  receiving  the 
Bible  only  or  the  Bible  and  tradition,  as  the  depos- 
itory of  spiritual  truth,  —  and  yet  make  this  defi- 
nition of  Christianit}-.  The  essential  point  of  the 
definition  is  covered  by  what  is  well  enough  under- 
stood under  the  common  theological  phrase,  "  the 
confession  of  Christ." 

And  this  definition  is  based  on  what  was  really 
the  beginning  of  Christianity  as  an  historical  relig- 
ion, the  confession  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the 
Christ;  that  is,  as  the  expected  Messiah  of  Jewish 
vision  and  prophecy.  The  New  Testament  makes 
tins  sufficiently  plain.  The  demand  made  on  the 
first  disciples,  the  covenant  of  the  primitive  Chris- 
tian church,  was  this,  and  only  this:  "  Believe  on 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  be  saved  ;  believe  in 
him  as  the  Messiah,  though  crucified  ;  for  he  is 
risen  from  the  grave,  and  will  yet  appear  as  the 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     181 

redeemer  of  Ins  people."  That  belief — saying 
nothing  now  of  what  was  meant  by  the  Messiah- 
ship,  nor  of  the  early  transformation  of  the  idea ; 
nothing  of  the  strength  or  Aveakness  of  the  alleged 
evidences  for  the  resurrection ;  nothing  of  the 
dogma  of  sacrificial  atonement  which  was  con- 
nected very  early  with  the  fact  of  crucifixion  and 
made  the  ground  of  salvation  —  that  simple  con- 
fession of  Jesus  as  the  Messiah  was  what,  and  all 
that,  defined  a  Christian  when  Christianity  first 
began  its  development  as  an  organized  religion. 
This  was  the  burden  of  the  apostolic  preaching ; 
and  this  too,  if  we  may  trust  the  record  of  the 
Gospels,  was  considered  by  Jesus  himself  as  a  good 
definition  of  a  disciple.  Certainly,  if  he  said  what 
the  record  puts  into  his  mouth,  "  Whosoever  shall 
confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I  confess  also 
before  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven ;  but  whoso- 
ever shall  deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also 
deny  before  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven,"  —  if  he  • 
said  that,  then-he  drew  the  lines  of  his  communion 
pretty  strictly  between  those  who  accepted  him 
as  Messiah  and  those  who  did  not.  The  record, 
however,  on  this  point  is  to  be  taken  with  some 
precaution.  But  whether  Jesus  uttered  this  and 
other  kindred  sayings  in  just  the  form  reported,  or 
whether  the  reporter  and  biographer  warped  what 
he  did  say  into  a  narrower  and  more  polemic  pur- 
pose than  he  ever  intended,  it  is  certain  that  he 
did  lay  claim  to  the  Messiahship  in  some  sense, 
and  that  it  was  on  the  recognition  of  this  claim 


182  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

and  of  the  spiritual  authority  with  which  the  Mes- 
sianic office  was  believed  to  invest  him,  that  the 
discipleship  which  he  attracted  eventually  devel- 
oped into  the  Christian  church.  Those,  therefore, 
who  define  Christianity  as  the  confession  of  Jesus 
as  the  Messiah,  and  as  consequently  an  authorita- 
tive Lord  and  Saviour  for  mankind,  have  a  strong 
ground  of  argument  in  the  earliest  records  and 
usage  of  Christendom.  The  word  "  Christianity  " 
itself  is  standing  evidence  in  favor  of  their  defini- 
tion. And  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that 
Christianity  historically,  as  an  organized  religion, 
did  begin  with  this  confession  as  defining  itself. 

But  in  the  course  of  eighteen  centuries  it  has 
come  to  pass  that  this  confession,  though  continued 
accurately  in  terms,  means  practically  something 
very  different  from  what  it  did  to  those  primitive 
followers  of  Jesus.  The  confession  of  Christ  has 
drifted  away  from  its  primitive  moral  and  spiritual 
significance,  to  be  little  more  than  an  act  of  the 
understanding,  or  even  an  act  of  mere  ecclesiastical 
or  social  conformity.  The  moral  life  has  gone  out 
of  it,  and  left  it  little  more  than  an  empty  shell. 
What  a  vast  difference  between  the  actual  signifi- 
cance of  the  confession  of  Christ  to  the  great 
majority  of  Christendom  in  modern  times,  —  the 
majority  even  of  those  who  take  an  active  interest 
in  religious  institutions  and  are  church-members, — 
and  what  it  meant  to  Peter  and  Matthew  and  Paul 
and  Stephen !  To  those  primitive  disciples,  and 
for  several  centuries,  to  confess  Christ  to-day 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS   DEFINITIONS.     183 

meant  to  go  to  prison  or  to  the  cross  to-morrow. 
To  declare  one's  self  a  Christian  was  to  declare 
one's  self  an  outcast  from  reputable  society ;  it 
was  to  take  up  the  most  unpopular  cause  of  the 
time ;  it  was  to  be  ready  for  any  contumely,  for 
any  suffering,  for  any  death.  To  confess  Christ 
then  meant  mockings  and  scourgings  and  bonds ; 
it  meant  perils  by  land  and  sea ;  it  meant  cold  and 
hunger  and  loneliness  ;  it  meant  living  in  caves  of 
the  earth  and  in  tombs  with  the  dead ;  it  meant 
being  stoned  to  death  by  furious  mobs,  and  being 
thrown  for  the  sport  of  a  jeering  populace  to  con- 
tend for  life  with  wild  beasts ;  it  meant  all  that 
man  can  do  and  bear,  for  the  sake  of  a  conviction 
of  truth,  against  the  united  opposition  of  the 
established  government  and  religion  and  society, 
and  against  the  crudest  forms  of  persecution  which 
the  depraved  ingenuity  of  man  can  devise.  All 
this  did  it  mean  practically  in  those  early  days  to 
confess  Christ,  and  to  call  one's  self  a  Christian. 
And  more  or  less  of  this  was  meant  by  the  Chris- 
tian confession,  until  Christianity  conquered  the 
Roman  Empire,  or  unfortunately  was  adopted  by 
it,  and  became  itself  the  established  religion. 
This  confession,  therefore,  in  the  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity was  not  merely  a  test  of  intellectual  belief ; 
it  was  hardly  that  at  all ;  it  was  a  criterion  of 
character.  It  was  something  that  tested  the  in- 
herent manliness  in  man.  It  was  a  touchstone  of 
moral  rather  than  of  mental  soundness.  It  was  an 
appeal  to  what  was  deepest  in  the  faith  of  the 


184     FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

human  heart,  and  summoned  all  the  forces  of 
human  bravery  and  moral  pertinacity  and  fidelity 
into  the  arena  of  public  conflict,  to  fight  for  spirit- 
ual liberty  and  for  truth  oppressed  and  scourged. 

But  what  does  it  mean  practically  to  confess 
Jesus  to  be  the  Christ  now  ?  Is  there  any  test  of 
character  in  the  act  ?  That  is,  does  the  bare  con- 
fession of  belief  in  Christ  compel  character  to  any 
such  test  as  it  did  then  ?  Does  it  necessarily  bring 
any  popular  reproach  ?  Does  it  cost  the  "sacrifice 
of  one's  good  name  ?  One  can  but  smile,  indeed, 
at  the  contrast  between  the  Christian  of  to-day  and 
the  Christian  of  that  early  time.  In  all  the  lead- 
ing nations  of  the  world,  the  Christian  to-day  is  in 
the  majority ;  he  is  on  the  popular  side  ;  the  sword 
is  in  his  hands  ;  wealth  and  worldly  opportunity 
are  with  him  ;  respectability  and  fashion  give  him 
their  indorsement.  It  is  not  the  man  who  con- 
fesses himself  a  Christian,  but  the  man  who  con- 
fesses that  he  is  an  infidel  to  Christian  belief,  who 
to-day  is  likely  to  lose  position  and  honor  and  to 
fall  under  the  social  ban,  and  has  to  bear  the  cross 
of  popular  odium  for  his  confession.  Even  the 
mobs  are  Christian  to-day,  and  in  their  frenzied 
profanity  swear  by  the  name  of  the  holy  Nazarene  ; 
which  no  man  in  a  mob  of  Paul's  time  could  have 
done  without  challenging  the  violence  of  his  fellow- 
mobocrats  as  being  himself  traitorously  a  Christian. 
Of  course  it  is  not  asserted  that  all  these  people 
who  are  counted  as  Christians  —  the  mobs,  the 
foolish  players  with  fashion,  the  worldly  and  the 


CHBISTIANITY  AND  ITS   DEFINITIONS.     185 

powerful  —  are  regarded  as  really  Christian  in  their 
hearts  and  lives:  that  touches  a  sense  of  the  word 
which  we  have  not  yet  considered.  But  so  far  as 
to  confess  Jesus  of  Nazareth  to  be  the  Christ,  and 
to  accept  him  as  an  infallible  religious  authority, 
makes  and  defines  a  Christian,  which  was  the  orig- 
inal definition,  they  are  so ;  for  they  give  an  intel- 
lectual or  a  traditional  assent  to  that  confession, 
and  are  accordingly  counted  in  the  world's  census 
as  Christians. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  The  point  now 
made  is  simply  this,  —  that,  owing  to  the  changed 
outward  conditions  of  Christianity,  to  acknowledge 
Jesus  as  an  authoritative  messenger  from  God  does 
not  in  modern  times,  as  it  did  in  the  early  centuries, 
necessarily  require  moral  heroism.  The  confession 
has  become  a  part  of  the  common  stock  of  hered- 
itary opinion  in  Christendom.  And  even  to  the 
majority  of  those  who  take  pains  to  assume  the 
name  Christian,  and  who  connect  themselves  with 
religious  institutions,  and  become  the  active  parti- 
sans of  Christianity,  the  confession  costs  little  more 
than  a  walk  or  drive  to  a  comfortable,  perhaps 
luxuriously  appointed  church,  on  Sunday,  and  an 
annual  ecclesiastical  tax.  And  even  this  much 
of  cost  is  often  expected  to  be  paid  back  in  im- 
proved social  and  business  position,  the  sacrifice 
being  very  shrewdly  invested  where  it  will  realize 
most  rapidly  in  these  expectations  of  social  or  busi- 
ness success.  It  is  an  open  fact  that  men  going 
to  new  places  to  set  up  in  business  —  young  law- 


186      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

yers,  physicians,  merchants,  teachers  —  often  seek 
an  eligible  church  relationship  in  order  to  secure  a 
good  business  constituency,  just  as  shop-keepers 
seek  a  good  stand  for  their  trade.  A  young  law- 
yer goes  to  New  York  to  begin  his  professional 
career.  Ambitious,  determined  to  win  position, 
not  very  scrupulous  concerning  the  means,  after 
he  has  hung  out  his  sign  in  Wall  Street,  he  hires  a 
seat  in  one  of  the  fashionable  up-town  churches, 
and  takes  a  class  in  its  Sunday  school.  He  does  it, 
as  he  does  not  hesitate  to  say,  not  because  he  has 
any  faith  in  the  religion  there  taught,  or  in  any 
religion ;  but  to  advertise  himself,  and  get  the 
entree  of  New- York  society.  And  so  long  as  he 
has  need  of  the  advertisement  he  keeps  his  inter- 
est in  the  church  and  the  Sunday  school ;  though 
his  life  through  the  week  may  give  the  He  to 
all  that  he  says  and  does  in  church  on  Sunday. 
And  this  is  no  imaginary  case.  Who  does  not 
know  that  much  of  the  church-going  in  modern 
days,  and  much  of  the  support  that  is  given  to 
religious  institutions,  is  of  this  character?  It  is 
largely  an  act  of  religious  conformity  for  the  sake 
of  social  or  business  success,  without  the  slightest 
basis  in  religious  sentiment  or  principle.  It  must 
have  been  one  of  this  class  of  modern  confessors 
of  Christ  whose  principles  seem  to  follow  their 
interests,  who,  having  been  driven  out  of  his  Uni- 
tarian pew  into  an  Episcopal  church  by  the  disagree- 
able politics  of  his  old  minister,  and  being  rallied 
one  Sunday  morning  by  one  of  his  Unitarian  neigh- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     187 

bors  on  the  Service  Book  under  his  arm,  replied 
with  dignified  piety,  "  This  is  my  Lethargy" 
What  an  exquisite  satire  —  all  the  more  for  being 
an  unconscious  Mrs.  Partingtonism  —  on  the  ob- 
jects and  methods  of  very  much  that  calls  itself 
Christian  worship  in  modern  times  ?  An  eesthetic 
device  for  lulling  reason  and  conscience  to  sleep  ! 
I  suppose  if  may  be  quite  safely  asserted  that  half 
of  the  stock-manipulators  and  gold-gamblers  in 
New  York  are  regular  attendants  of  churches,  and 
would  make  a  perfectly  orthodox  confession  of 
faith.  Some  of  them  are  noted  for  their  zealous 
piety,  for  their  efficiency  in  prayer-meetings,  and 
for  their  generosity,  too,  in  handing  over  to  Jesus 
what  they  have  cheated  out  of  their  own  confed- 
erates in  financial  wickedness.  What  wonder,  see- 
ing that  such  men  can  be  accounted  Christians, 
that  speculation  and  the  gambling  spirit  have  got 
into  the  church  itself,  and  that  many  ecclesiastical 
corporations  are  conducted  upon  the  same  principles 
upon  which  the  great  stock  companies  are  man- 
aged !  The  same  skill  that  successfully  "  waters  " 
railroad  stocks  is  invited  and  welcomed  to  try  its 
hand  at  "  watering  "  the  gospel. 

We  hear  much  said  in  recent  days  about  the 
irreligious  tendencies  of  people  as  manifested  in 
the  -multitudes  who  do  not  go  to  any  church ;  and 
the  prospect  is  in  some  respects  bad.  Yet,  to  my 
mind,  there  is  a  thousand-fold  more  ground  for 
solicitude  concerning  the  moral  and  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  society,  in  the  fact  that  there  are  so  many 


188      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

habitual  church-goers  who  are  no  more  religious  in 
their  characters  and  lives  than  if  they  had  no  con- 
tact whatever  with  religious  institutions,  and  to 
whom  religious  habits  have  only  become  a  con- 
venient cloak,  not  only  to  cover  the  want  of  real 
moral  and  spiritual  earnestness,  but  to  conceal 
decently  from  the  public  eye  positive  moral  de- 
formity and  rottenness.  To  such  an  extent  does 
the  insincerity  prevail,  that  it  is  a  wonder  the 
maskers,  as  they  meet  in  their  Sunday  pilgrimages 
to  their  respective  churches,  do  not  peep  out  from 
under  their  masks  to  laugh  at  each  other's  attempt 
at  pious  deceit.  The  deceit,  however,  has  a  sort 
of  conventional  success.  At  least  the  mask  an- 
swers its  purpose  of  advertising  where  the  wearer 
is,  and  in  what  social  circle  he  may  be  found.  As 
to  character,  it  cannot  be  said  to  vouch  for,  nor 
perhaps  to  impeach  that.  For,  to  the  shame  of 
Christendom,  it  must  be  confessed  that  no  saga- 
cious man  trusts  another  any  sooner  for  being  an 
attendant  or  member  of  a  church,  or  for  calling 
himself  a  Christian.  If  one  wants  testimonials  of 
character  that  are  of  mercantile  value,  he  knows 
he  must  have  something  more  than  a  certificate  of 
church-membership.  So  little  does  a  mere  con- 
fession of  belief  in  Christ  remain  in  any  way  as  a 
test  of  character ! 

And  so  patent  has  this  fact  become,  that  many 
people  in  Christendom  —  some  of  them  attached 
to  the  church,  but  more,  probably,  outside  of  the 
church  —  have  refused  to  define  Christianity  any 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     189 

longer  by  this  old  phrase,  "  the  confession  of 
Christ."  Even  those  Orthodox  sects  that  assert 
intellectual  belief  in  Christ  to  be  essential  Avill  say 
that  there  must  be  something  more  than  a  mere 
lip-confession :  the  confession,  they  add,  must  be 
experimental  and  of  the  heart.  The  most  en- 
lightened teachers  of  Orthodoxy,  while  they  assert 
that  the  moral  life  of  society  can  have  no  security 
without  a  belief  in  Christianity,  will  reject  the  idea 
that  there  can  be  any  real  Christianity  in  those 
people  who  do  not  connect  their  confession  of 
belief  in  it  with  purity  of  morals.  And  full  jus- 
tice must  be  done  to  this  distinction.  It  is  an 
attempt  to  restore  to  the  act  of  confessing  Christ 
something  of  its  old  moral  significance ;  and  there 
are,  as  all  must  most  gladly  acknowledge,  very 
many  noble  men  and  women  who  sincerely  believe 
that  the  confession  of  Christ  requires  of  them  to- 
day something  of  the  same  practical,  self-denying 
life  of  simplicity  and  charity  which  was  assumed  by 
Jesus  himself,  and  something  of  the  same  struggle 
against  the  power  of  fashion  and  popular  applause 
which  was  forced  upon  the  primitive  disciples. 
But  that  it  is  exceedingly  difficult,  if  not  impossi- 
ble, to  maintain  this  distinction  in  an  entire  Chris- 
tian community,  the  confessedly  worldly  condition 
of  the  Christian  church  itself  bears  conclusive  evi- 
dence. The  idea  of  confessing  Christ  by  some 
technical  mental  experience  has  become  ingrained 
in  the  very  organization  of  Orthodoxy.  Ministers 
of  Calviiiistic  belief  have  admitted  that  the  most 


190  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

discouraging  fact  in  their  professional  experience 
has  been,  that  the  people  under  their  charge  have 
been  accustomed  to  make  so  little  connection  be- 
tween a  confession  of  Christian  faith  and  the  prac- 
tice of  Christian  morality  ;  that  it  had  so  frequently 
happened  that  those  who  were  foremost  in  their 
professions  of  religion,  and  zealous  talkers  for 
Christ  in  conference-meetings,  and  who  were  re- 
puted to  be  Christian  men  and  women,  were  not 
only  not  distinguished  above  others  in  respect  to 
moral  practice,  but  were  positively  wanting  in 
the  common  virtues  of  truthfulness,  integrity,  and 
charity :  so  that  it  could  hardly  be  claimed  that 
church-members  were,  as  a  rule,  better  men  and 
women  than  those  attendants  of  churches  who  had 
never  made  any  confession  of  Christian  belief. 

But  many  other  people  have  gone  still  further 
in  the  attempt  to  rectify  the  old  definition  of 
Christianity.  Seeing  what  delusion  and  hypocrisy 
are  possible  so  long  as  a  confession  of  belief 
in  Christ  is  made  the  essential  thing  in  Chris- 
tianity, they  deny  that  such  confession  is  in  any 
form  the  essential  thing.  They  look  into  the  New 
Testament,  and  they  say,  that,  though  Jesus 
claimed  to  be  the  Messiah,  and  seems  also  to  have 
taught  the  importance  of  being  accepted  as  such, 
yet  this  was  not  the  main  thing  in  his  teaching  or 
his  work.  What  he  did  teach  as  essential  to  vital 
religion,  they  claim,  was  love  to  God  and  love  to 
man ;  the  fatherhood  of  God,  the  brotherhood  of 
man.  It  is  said,  for  instance,  that  the  essence  of 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   ITS  DEFINITIONS.     191 

Christianity  is  contained  in  the  sentence,  "  Bear 
ye  one  another's  burdens ; "  and  that  that  man  is 
a  Christian,  no  matter  what  he  believes  or  does 
not  believe,  whose  life  and  ethics  grow  out  of  this 
central  root  of  Christianity.  Others  say,  meaning 
substantially  the  same  thing,  that  Christianity  is 
synonymous  with  goodness ;  that  the  man  who  is 
just,  generous,  loving,  reverent,  humane,  whatever 
his  belief,  is  the  Christian  man.  What  are  the 
dispositions  and  affections  of  the  heart,  what  the 
grand  aim  of  the  character,  what  fruit  is  borne  in 
the  life,  —  these,  they  allege,  are  the  test  questions 
in  the  gospels.  And  hence  another  definition  of 
Christianity  has  arisen,  which  may  be  called  the 
Liberal-evangelical  definition ;  not,  however,  that 
it  is  coincident  entirely  with  the  so-called  liberal 
Christian  sects,  and  not  found  in  any  others.  It 
may  be  found  to  some  extent  in  all  the  sects. 
There  are  ministers  in  Evangelical  sects  who 
preach  it  more  than  some  of  the  prominent  clergy- 
men of  the  Unitarian  and  Universalist  denomina- 
tions. According  to  this  definition,  Christianity  is 
the  substance  of  what  Jesus  himself  taught, — 
that  is,  God's  love  to  man  and  man's  love  to  -God 
and  to  his  fellow-men,  —  and  does  not  consist  in 
any  doctrine  about  Jesus ;  and  the  Christian  is 
one  who  lives  habitually  in  the  same  attitude  to- 
wards God  and  man  as  did  Jesus.  The  definition 
is  to  be  called  evangelical  as  well  as  liberal,  since  it 
professes  to  find  its  authority  in  the  Gospels. 

Now  abundant  argument  can  be  found  for  this 


192  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

definition  of  Christianity  in  the  New  Testament, 
and  especially  in  the  reputed  words  of  Jesus  him- 
self. For  even  if  he  said,  "  Whosoever  shall  con- 
fess me  before  men,  him  will  I  confess  also  before 
my  Father  who  is  in  heaven  ;  but  whosoever  shall 
deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  deny  before 
my  Father  who  is  in  heaven,"  —  he  may  have  been 
thinking  of  such  people  as  Nicodemus,  who  had 
not  the  moral  courage  to  come  to  him  by  daylight, 
and. so  did  not  really  belong  to  his  communion : 
for  he  said,  too,  "  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto 
me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father," 
where  he  clearly  puts  the  doing  of  the  divine  will 
before  any  personal  homage  to  himself.  If  we  are 
to  take  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  the  larger 
and  more  important  of  the  parables,  as  embodying 
the  substance  of  Jesus'  teachings,  it  does  seem  as 
if  we  might  very  accurately  sum  them  up  in  the 
formula,  "  Love  of  God  and  man."  The  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  though  probably  never  uttered  by 
Jesus  as  it  stands,  yet,  in  its  relation  to  the  biogra- 
phy of  him  in  the  first  Gospel,  appears  in  the  char- 
acter of  an  inaugural  discourse,  setting  forth  the 
main  principles  of  his  public  teaching.  And  they 
are  certainly  such  as  would  not  be  regarded  as  a 
sufficient  qualification  for  admitting  him  to  mem- 
bership in  any  of  the  so-called  evangelical  churches 
which  make  him  their  head.  In  the  parable  of 
the  Good  Samaritan,  under  the  characters  of  the 
priest  and  the  levite,  he  clearly  rebukes  the  ortho- 


CHRISTIANITY   AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     193 

dox  and  ceremonial  religion  of  the  time,  and  selects 
the  heretical,  despised,  and  outcast  Samaritan  as 
the  example  of  the  kind  of  piety  in  which  he 
believed. 

But  a  stronger  argument  for  that  definition  of 
Christianity  which  we  are  now  considering  than 
any  reputed  discourses  or  words  of  Jesus,  is  his 
general  attitude  towards  his  nation  and  its  beliefs 
and  institutions;  and  concerning  his  general  at- 
titude there  can  be  no  doubt.  However  frag- 
mentary and  uncertain  may  be  the  biographical 
accounts  of  his  career,  we  instinctively  feel  that 
Jesus  was  the  great  Radical  of  his  age.  He 
was  the  moral  and  religious  reformer ;  the  dan- 
gerous innovator  ;  the  pestilent  agitator ;  the  be- 
liever  in  an  ideal ;  the  champion  of  humanity 
against  the  tyranny  of  institutions  ;  the  ecclesias- 
tical and  social  revolutionist ;  the  determined, 
merciless  foe  of  cant  and  hypocrisy  and  a  mere 
traditional  piety ;  the  Hebrew  Protestant,  who 
fought,  almost  single-handed,  against  the  whole 
organized  power  of  the  Mosaic  religion,  though  it 
was'  backed  by  the  Roman  Empire,  and  who,  so 
fighting,  was  hunted  down  at  last  by  a  conspiracy 
between  the  synagogue  and  the  state,  and  died  a 
martyr  to  his  faith  and  his  fidelity.  The  heroic 
heart  of  the  world  does  not  easily  give  over  such 
a  character  to  a  few  sonorous  phrases  bandied  be- 
tween pulpit  and  pew,  in  the  exclusive  service  of 
the  very  kind  of  conservative  and  traditional  piety 
against  which  it  was  once  a  living  protest.  The 

13 


194  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

character  of  Jesus,  and  the  movement  in  which 
Christianity  began,  are  instinctively  felt  to  be  in 
the  interest  of  human  progress  and  freedom,  —  in 
the  interests  of  the  rights  of  man  as  against  the 
power  of  superstition  and  the  authority  of  eccle- 
siasticism ;  and  hence  the}7  have  always  furnished 
argument  and  stimulus  to  social  and  religious 
reformers,  to  the  Savonarolas  and  Luthers  and 
Garrisons  and  Theodore  Parkers,  to  the  outcast, 
persecuted,  and  martyred  minorities,  in  all  the 
centuries  since  the  Christian  era.  Against  Chris- 
tianity as  it  is,  both  in  the  church  and  in  society, 
some  of  the  mightiest  weapons  that  have  been 
hurled  have  been  easily  found  in  its  own  original 
armory. 

This  definition,  therefore,  that  identifies  Chris- 
tianity with  the  main  substance  of  Jesus'  teach- 
ings, —  with  the  general  drift  and  emphasis  of  his 
work,  —  is  doubtless  correct  so  far  as  it  attempts 
to  define  the  essential  principles  which  lay  under- 
neath his  specific  teaching  and  mission.  And  it 
establishes  a  very  broad  basis  of  fellowship, — 
broader  than  has  ever  been  realized  in  any  Chris- 
tian church  or  sect.  By  it  those  may  really  be 
Christians  who  are  not  called  so,  and  who  do  not 
even  call  themselves  so,  or  who  have  never  even 
heard  of  Jesus.  By  this  definition,  as  has  been 
well  said,  "  There  are  men  called  infidels  who 
really  are  Christians,  as  also  there  are  men  calling 
themselves  Christians  who  really  are  infidels." 
Those  Jews  in  Baltimore  who,  though  no  circular 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS   DEFINITIONS.      195 

was  sent  to  them  when  the  Northern  appeal  for 
educating  the  freedmen  was  forwarded  to  the 
churches  of  that  city,  were  yet  among  the  first  to 
respond  to  it,  were  by  this  definition  more  Chris- 
tian than  the  Christian  churches  that  let  the  ap- 
peal go  unread  and  unanswered. 

But,  though  this  definition  of  Christianity  which 
keeps  in  sight  only  the  spiritual  and  ethical  sub- 
stance of  Jesus'  teachings,  is  a  very  natural  one,  and 
will  do,  and  has  already  done,  excellent  service  as  a 
reaction  against  the  moral  inadequacy  of  the  more 
Orthodox  definition  previously  spoken  of,  yet  it 
may  be  questioned  whether  historically  it  is  strictly 
true,  and  whether  it  really  meets  and  explains  all 
the  facts  in  the  case.  It  is  not  meant  to  explain 
and  cover  all  the  events  and  facts  in  Christian 
history.  It  throws  many  of  them  aside  as  corrup- 
tions. But  the  deeper  question  comes,  —  does  it 
adequately  explain  the  origin  of  Christianity? 
does  it  account  for  the  phenomena  attending  that 
wonderful  renewal  of  religious  life  and  thought 
which  made  the  Christian  epoch?  "Would  the 
simple  preaching  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Love  of 
God  and  Man,  even  by  the  greatest  of  Jewish 
prophets,  have  brought  at  that  time  a  new  religion  ? 
The  doctrine  in  itself  is  not  new,  not  distinctively 
Christian  :  it  belongs  to  Judaism ;  and  Jesus  him- 
self, in  his  most  explicit  statement  of  it,  simply 
quoted  from  the  law  of  Moses,  "  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and  soul  and 
strength,  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  This  was 


196      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  essence  of  the  Hebrew  religion.  It  may  be 
said  to  be  the  essence,  the  seed-germ,  the  important 
and  permanent  thing,  in  all  religions.  But  the 
question  is,  Is  it  an  adequate  statement  of  what 
Christianity  actually  is  as  a  specific  religious  sys- 
tem ?  It  may  be  more  important  than  that  state- 
ment ;  but  is  it  that  statement  ?  It  certainly  does 
not  distinguish  Christianity  from  other  forms  of 
religion.  The  liberal  Jew  will  make  precisely  the 
same  claim  for  his  religion ;  the  reformed  Hindu 
and  the  Parsee,  the  same  for  theirs.  If  Christian- 
ity means  simply  natural  reverence  and  goodness, 
if  its  whole  significance  is  covered  by  the  phrase, 
"  love  to  God  and  man,"  why  a  new  word  to  rep- 
resent that  old  thing?  How  did  the  new  word 
arise?  Let  it  be  that  Christianity  is  only  a  new 
phase  of  an  old  sentiment.  Have  we  then  truly 
defined  Christianity  when  we  have  defined  the 
old  sentiment,  and  left  aside  just  that  which  marks 
a  new  phase  ?  To  define  Christianity  as  love  to 
God  and  man,  is  to  make  it  independent  of  any 
specific  form  or  phase  or  teacher ;  independent  of 
Jesus  himself.  Is  it  therefore  a  correct  definition 
of  Christianity? 

The  inadequacy  of  the  definition,  certainly,  from 
an  historical  point  of  view,  has  long  been  felt  even 
by  the  liberal  portion  of  Christendom  ;  and  hence 
there  has  come  up  in  these  later  years  a  supple- 
ment to  it  in  what  we  may  call  the  Sentimental- 
historical  definition  ;  using  the  word  sentimental, 
not  with  any  intention  of  casting  slight  on  the 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS,    197 

view  of  Christianity  thus  characterized,  but  be- 
cause this  representation  is  an  attempt  to  explain 
Christianity"  by  allowing  more  than  does  the  pre- 
ceding definition  to  the  action  of  the  emotional 
side  of  religion,  and  because  it  lays  special  em- 
phasis on  the  reverence  and  love  excited  by  the 
personal  character  of  Jesus,  and  brings  into  cen- 
tral prominence  the  influence  of  his  personality 
itself.  And  it  is  to  be  called  historical,  because 
it  emphasizes  the  actual  facts  of  Jesus'  career. 
According  to  this  view,  Christianity  arose  iu  an 
unbounded  enthusiasm  for  the  person  of  Jesus, 
and,  through  the  personal  magnetism  of  his  char- 
acter, for  the  ideas  which  he  preached ;  an  enthu- 
siasm for  the  kingdom  of  God  as  coming  through 
him,  its  earthly  head  and  representative.  He, 
from  this  point  of  view,  is  the  hero  of  this  great 
religious  revolution  ;  the  central  figure  of  the 
whole  world's  history,  summing  up  in  himself  all 
that  was  past,  and  prophetic  and  typical  of  all  that 
was  future :  and  so  he  still  remains,  the  ideal,  re- 
presentative man,  holding,  by  virtue  of  his  con- 
summate spiritual  intelligence,  and  the  historic 
results  of  his  character  and  life,  the  place  of 
headship  to  the  human  race.  And  Christianity 
from  this  point  of  view  may  be  denned  as  the  fel- 
lowship of  those  who  recognize  Jesus  in  this  his- 
toric position,  and  acknowledge  in  any  way  their 
personal  allegiance  to  him.  This  view  is  repre- 
sented by  such  books  as  the  English  "Ecce  Homo," 
by  Schenkel  iu  Germany,  by  Renan  in  France,  and 


198  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

by  our  own  beloved  Dr.  Furness  in  America.  All 
these  authors,  and  the  school  to  which  they  belong, 
though  differing  widely  on  many  points  among 
themselves,  yet  agree  in  this,  —  that  to  write  truly 
the  biography  of  Jesus  is  to  define  Christianity 
both  in  its  origin  and  its  continued  inspiration, 
and  that  the  new  spirit  coming  into  the  world 
through  the  personal  power  of  his  life  is  the  bond 
of  the  Christian  fellowship  and  the  source  and 
strength  of  Christian  faith. 

Now  this  class  of  writers  deserve  high  honor  for 
the  real  service  they  have  done  in  rescuing  Chris- 
tian history  from  narrow  dogmatists,  who  have 
heretofore  done  most  of  the  historical  writing  in 
its  interest,  and  in  restoring  to  the  character  of 
Jesus  and  his  times  the  vividness  of  human  reality 
and  personal  life,  —  features  greatly  wanting  in 
the  representation  of  those  who  would  make  Chris- 
tianity nothing  more  than  a  new  proclamation  of 
old  spiritual  and  ethical  truths.  They  have  at- 
tempted to  write  Christian  history,  and  to  describe 
the  character  of  Jesus,  as  if  both  were  human ; 
and  so  have  succeeded  in  giving  a  picture  of  both 
that  has  touched  the  hearts  of  all  readers,  and 
drawn  them  back  into  living  sympathy  with  the 
experiences  of  those  early  times.  And  to  this 
extent  they  have  made  a  real  contribution  to  the 
true,  history  of  Christianity. 

Yet  their  statement  of  Christianity  is  defective, 
for  the  reason  that  to  dissolve  history  into  biog- 
raphy must  always  give  unsound  history.  It  is  to 


CHRISTIANITY   AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     199 

commit  the  same  error  that  Carlyle  makes,  when 
he  selects  a  few  heroes  and  writes  their  lives  for 
the  life  of  mankind  during  their  times.  The 
method  gives  us  no  true  philosophy  of  events,  nor 
of  character.  It  misses  the  great  forces  that  lie 
back  of  events,  —  the  great  providential  forces  of 
race,  of  country,  of  climate,  of  ideas,  of  institu- 
tions and  temperaments,  —  that  help  to  mould 
events  and  to  make  character.  And  hence  this  / 
method  of  defining  Christianity  does  not  suf- 
ficiently take  into  account  the  antecedent  ele- 
ments in  other  religions  which  came  by  natural 
descent  into  Christianity  at  its  origin,  nor  the 
popular  ideas  which  went  into  it  while  it  was  in 
process  of  organization,  nor  the  contributions  that 
came  to  it  from  contact  with  other  modes  of 
thought  and  from  emigration  to  other  lands  and 
peoples  after  the  time  of  Jesus.  It  gives  us  a  pictu- 
resque drama  of  Christianity,  but  not  its  philosophy, 
and  therefore  not  its  true  history  nor  definition. 

The  attempt,  too,  to  resuscitate  at  this  day  the 
old  feeling  of  attachment  and  fealty  to  the  person 
of  Jesus,  which  animated  the  hearts  of  the  first 
disciples,  and  to  make  that  the  fountain  and  inspi- 
ration of  religion  to  this  age,  must  be  futile.  We 
cannot,  indeed,  study  his  life  without  constant  ad- 
miration of  his  wisdom,  and  without  learning  to 
lore  and  reverence  the  rare  beauty  of  his  char- 
acter ;  we  may  even  adopt  him  as  our  spiritual  ex- 
ample and  authoritative  religious  teacher ;  or,  as 
many  do,  come  to  worship  him  as  Deity :  but  it  is 


200  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

impossible  to  revive  in  our  hearts  the  active  per- 
sonal enthusiasm  for  him  as  a  living,  human  being, 
which  was  felt  towards  him  by  those  who  heard 
the  words  from  his  own  lips,  who  touched  the 
warm  brotherly  blood  in  his  hand,  and  to  whom 
his  face  and  character  were  familiar  by  daily  inter- 
course. The  communion  that  gathers  about  him 
now  must  be  held  by  the  force  of  ideas,  and  not 
by  the  ties  of  personal  magnetism. 

And  it  is  remarkable  how  soon  the  influence  of 
Jesus  as  a  person  seems  to  have  passed  away  after 
his  death,  and  how  quickly  his  official  character  as 
Messiah,  and  the  dogmas  which  were  woven  about 
him  as  filling  that  position,  came  in  to  take  the 
place  of  personal  recollections.  One  of  the  most 
striking  features  of  Paul's  epistles  is  the  absence 
from  them  of  allusions  to  the  personal  career  of 
Jesus.  There  is  in  them  all  hardly  a  reference  to 
any  thing  that  Jesus  said  or  did  ;  and  yet  some  of 
them  are  the  earliest  extant  records  of  Christianity. 
Though  Paul  had  had  no  personal  acquaintance 
with  Jesus,  it  is  yet  strange  that  he  should  not 
have  been  the  medium  of  preserving  some  of  the 
multitudinous  personal  traditions  about  him  which, 
one  would  suppose,  must  have  come  to  his  knowl- 
edge. And  this  fact  can  only  be  explained  by  the 
hypothesis  that  it  was  not  so  much  the  personal 
character  of  Jesus  which  made  its  impress  upon 
Paul's  mind  as  his  official  character,  —  a  supposi- 
tion which  is  abundantly  supported  by  evidence 
which  fills  his  epistles.  He  seems  even  to  have 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     201 

taken  pride  in  not  knowing  Jesus  after  the  flesh  ; 
and  shows  throughout  his  writings  that  it  was  his 
own  ideal  conception  of  Jesus'  position  in  a  provi- 
dential plan  of  salvation  that  was  the  animating 
impulse  of  his  enthusiastic  faith  and  labors.  And 
this  was  clearly  the  case,  too,  with  others  among 
the  earliest  Christian  believers  and  laborers.  And 
to-day,  when  it  is  claimed  that  Jesus  is  felt  as  a 
personal  friend,  especially  by  the  poor  and  wronged 
and  suffering,  we  may  find  the  ground  of  the  claim 
in  the  fragrant  memory  of  his  human  life  of  devo- 
tion to  all  forms  of  disease  and  distress,  which  ten- 
derly mingles  with  the  dogmatic  idea  of  him  as 
the  continued  administrator  of  the  divine  mercy  by 
virtue  of  his  place  in  the  Godhead  or  in  a  special 
providential  scheme  of  human  redemption. 
i \  And  so  we  must  seek  another  statement  of  Chris- 
tianity still,  —  something  more  comprehensive  and 
more  scientific  than  either  of  the  definitions  we 
have  considered.  Each  of  these  marks  an  impor- 
tant part  of  Christianity,  but  not  the  whole  ;  and 
none  of  them  is  consistent  with  any  philosophy  of 
Christian  history.  What  we  want  is  a  statement 
Avhieh  we  may  call  the  Scientific-historical  defi- 
nition of  Christianity.  The  great  modern  civil 
historians  attempt  not  only  to  gather  up  and  set 
forth  in  order  the  events  of  communities  and 
nations  and  the  doings  and  influence  of  leading 
persons,  —  they  attempt  not  simply  to  tell  what 
happened,  but  to  trace  back  events  to  ideas  and 
principles,  and  to  show  the  relations  that  exist 


202  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

between  persons  and  the  impersonal  laws  and 
forces  with  which  persons  deal.  And  we  shall  ^ 
not  have  Christianity  set  in  its  true  position  in 
the  world's  history  until  we  have  its  history  writ- 
ten from  this  point  of  view,  —  until  we  come  to 
see  it,  not  as  a  piece  by  itself,  interjected  into  the 
general  course  of  history  through  the  power  of 
any  person,  however  eminent  in  wisdom  or  char- 
acter, but  as  a  fluent,  social  force,  the  momentum 
and  resultant  of  many  confluent  religious  and  moral 
ideas,  and  of  many  generations  of  thought  and  sen- 
timent and  action,  —  not  beginning  with  Jesus,  nor 
confined  to  Hebrew  history  alone,  yet  coming  to 
specific  organization  and  activity  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  the  Hebrew  Messianic  idea,  and 
through  the  spiritual  genius  and  power  of  the 
Hebrew  prophet,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  as  the  ac- 
cepted representative  of  the  Messianic  office ;  not 
leaping,  however,  as  a  completely  organized  system 
even  from  his  brain  and  heart,  but  enlarging  and 
essentially  transforming  the  Messianic  conception, 
its  own  instrument,  in  order  to  meet  the  religious 
demands  of  the  age  ;  and,  as  it  proceeded  in  its 
work  of  organization,  assimilating  to  itself  various 
other  ideas  and  modes  of  thought  foreign  to  the 
Hebrew  faith  and  to  the  views  of  Jesus ;  receiving 
in  its  course  contributions  from  different  climes 
and  nations  and  persons  and  philosophies,  and 
modifying  its  nature  as  well  as  its  volume  by  these 
fresh  increments  to  its  constituent  elements,  until 
it  has  grown  from  a  small,  despised,  persecuted, 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     203 

and,  to  our  modern  ideas,  a  somewhat  ascetical  and 
fanatical  Jewish  sect,  into  the  gigantic  religious  and 
social  power,  interpenetrating  almost  all  modern  life 
with  its  influence  and  modern  civilization  with  its 
machinery,  which  we  see  Christianity  to  be  to-day.  / 

And  when  we  have  the  history  of  Christianity 
written  from  this  stand -point  of  scientific  philoso- 
phy, we  shall  see  that  it  is  indeed  true  that  its 
most  vital  and  durable  elements  are  not  specifically 
and  exclusively  its  own,  but  are  universal,  —  such 
as  the  doctrines  of  the  divine  fatherhood  and 
human  brotherhood,  —  and  that  in  a  very  impor- 
tant sense,  therefore,  Christianity  did  not  begin  , 
with  the  Christian  era.  We  shall  find  its  roots  far  / 
back  of  that  epoch,  far  older  and  deeper  than  the' 
popular  estimate  would  reckon  them.  It  was  the 
appearing  above  the  soil  of  society,  in  new  and 
more  powerful  combinations,  of  elements  that  had 
long  been  active  beneath.  It  was  the  natural 
ripening  of  religious  ideas  and  aspirations,  which 
had  long  been  living  and  growing  in  the  human 
mind,  into  a  definite  form  of  organization  and 
activity.  Its  coming  was  inevitable.  It  would 
have  come  in  some  form,  or  some  new  religion 
would  have  appeared  corresponding  to  it,  though <^ 
Jesus  had  never  lived  ;  yet  in  the  unfolding  of  the 
infinite  plan  of  human  history  he  was  the  leader 
whose  large  and  strong  personality  helped  to  con- 
centrate the  stirring  religious  elements  of  the  time, 
and  to  shape  them  to  a  definite  purpose  and  end. 
But  he  did  not  make  the  religious  crisis  ;  that  was 


204      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

prepared  for  him.  He  did  not  introduce  the  ideas 
which  made  the  constituent  elements  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  they  were  before  him,  and  helped  to  make 
him  what  he  was ;  and  he  sought  and  could  have 
no  higher  office  than  to  be  their  faithful  inter- 
preter, their  devoted  instrument.  The  old  relig-  7 
ions  fell  away,  because  pushed  off  by  the  growing 
life  of  the  religious  aspirations  and  ideas  that  were 
astir  in  the  popular  heart,  and  Christianity  came 
as  the  natural  result  and  expression  of  those  aspi- 
rations and  ideas,  —  just  as  in  political  progress 
the  growing  conviction  of  national  freedom  and 
justice  and  power  in  the  heart  of  a  people  is  finally 
able  to  push  off  a  despotic  and  outgrown  monar- 
chy, and  put  a  freer  and  higher  form  of  government 
in  its  place. 

But  such  political  revolutions  sometimes  fail  for 
the  want  of  a  fit  leader,  —  for  the  lack  of  some  one 
representative  man  of  strong  personal  character- 
istics who  harmoniously  combines  in  his  o\vn 
nature  the  progressive  but  still  somewhat  uncer- 
tain aspirations,  convictions,  and  will  of  the  peo- 
ple. America  had  such  a  man  in  Washington. 
The  great  political  reformation  in  France  in  the 
eighth  and  ninth  centuries  was  specially  embodied 
in  Charlemagne.  And  the  religious  revolution 
that  brought  Christianity  had  its  leader  in  Jesus. 
A  philosophic  statement  of  Christianity,  therefore, 
will  not  trace  every  thing  to  universal  principles 
and  impersonal  ideas  working  in  the  minds  of  men 
in  mass.  It  will  take  due  account  of  the  increased 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS,     205 

power  of  ideas  when  embodied  in  such  a  life-giving 
and  commanding  personality  as  was  possessed  by 
Jesus.  It  will  show  that  it  was  the  force  of  his 
religious  genius  which  persuaded  people  into  ac- 
cepting him  as  the  Messiah,  although  he  came  with 
none  of  the  expected  royal  insignia  of  the  Mes- 
sianic office  ;  that  it  was  the  inherent  authority  of 
the  truth  he  saw  and  proclaimed,  and  the  tender 
humanity  animating  his  heart,  which  drew  the 
multitudes  to  follow  after  his  steps,  and  to  hang 
upon  the  gracious  words  that  proceeded  out  of  his 
mouth.  A  true  philosophy  of  the  origin  of  Chris- 
tianity will  detect  the  inner  spiritual  fact,  that  the 
people  who  accepted  him  were  convinced  that  he 
must  be  the  Messiah,  not  so  much  because  he  so 
announced  himself  and  gave  outward  proof  of  the 
office,  as  because  their  own  yearning,  aching  hearts 
instinctively  felt  in  his  virtue  the  secret  of  their 
own  healing  and  blessedness.  A  peasant  by  birth 
and  training,  inheriting  neither  noble  blood  nor  cult- 
ure nor  social  rank  and  opportunity,  with  aid  from 
neither  synagogue  nor  state,  it  was  the  power  of 
his  personal  genius  as  a  religious  teacher  and  re- 
former that  elevated  him  to  the  Messianic  office. 

But  after  all,  great  and  pure  as  he  was,  it  was 
not  Jesus  the  man,  but  Jesus  the  Messiah,  who 
was  the  recognized  founder  of  the  new  religion. 
And  hence  a  scientific  statement  of  Christianity 
must  take  account  not  only  of  its  universal  ele- 
ments, and  of  the  personal  power  of  Jesus,  but  also 
of  his  Messianic  office.  For  the  medium  through 


206  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

which  these  universal  elements  were  concentrated 
into  such  specific  concrete  shape  as  to  make  a  new 
religious  era,  and  the  instrument  with  which  Jesus 
worked  as  the  prophet  of  the  era,  was  the  Hebrew 
Messianic  idea.  The  service  of  this  idea  in  the 
first  organization  of  the  primitive  elements  of 
Christianity  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  In  that 
childlike  age,  among  a  childlike  people,  something 
more  was  needed  than  a  bare  proclamation  of 
moral  and  spiritual  truth,  with  whatever  power  of 
personal  genius.  And  this  need  was  supplied  by 
the  old  Hebrew  conception  of  the  speedy  coming 
of  the  Messianic  kingdom,  —  a  conception  that 
appealed  with  all  the  vividness  of  a  drama  to  the 
spiritual  imagination  and  hopes  and  fears  of  men. 
This  idea  is  the  one  thread  of  unity  that  runs 
through  all  the  varieties  of  writings  in  the  New 
Testament  from  Matthew  to  Revelation.  It  was 
this  that  gradually  lifted  Jesus  himself  out  of  all 
human  and  historic  proportions  into  the  colossal 
magnitude  in  which  he  has  been  seen  by  Christen- 
dom for  eighteen  centuries.  It  was  the  belief, 
after  his  crucifixion,  in  his  second  Messianic  ad- 
vent—  an  event  which  his  followers  looked  for  in 
their  lifetime  —  that  gave  the  immediate  animat- 
ing impulse  to  their  cause,  and  attracted  such 
numbers  of  people  to  confess  him  as  the  expected 
Christ;  for  this  advent  was  to  solve  all  life's  trials 
and  perplexities ;  it  was  to  bring  redemption  to 
the  sinful,  rest  to  the  weary,  wealth  to  the  desti- 
tute, and  comfort  to  the  sorrowing.  And  around 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS   DEFINITIONS.    207 

this  simple,  childish  hope,  which  was  yet  full  to 
bursting  with  the  deep  life  of  spiritual  aspirations 
and  yearnings,  the  first  Christian  church  was  gath- 
ered,—  a  sect  of  Judaism  accepting  Jesus  as  the 
Messiah,  and  looking  for  his  second  coming  to 
complete  and  establish  his  sovereignty. 

But  Christianity  was  early  moulded  by  external 
influences,  as  well  as  by  its  internal  idea  ;  and  of 
these  its  scientific  history  must  also  take  note. 
This  process  began  even  in  the  apostolic  days. 
Paul  and  Apollos  and  others,  bred  in  the  Grecian 
school  of  culture,  soon  appeared  on  the  stage  by  the 
side  of  the  original  apostles ;  and  from  them  the 
Christian  movement  received  a  new  tone  of  thought, 
and  took  a  new  direction  and  a  broader  way. 

Paul,  the  most  important  of  this  new  class  of 
apostles,  and  the  greatest  intellect  of  the  primitive 
Christian  period,  emphasized,  as  has  already  been 
intimated,  still  more  than  did  the  original  apostles, 
the  official  character  of  Jesus  ;  and,  what  is  of  more 
moment,  he  attached  new  ideas  to  the  Messianic 
office.  With  him  began  that  interpretation  of  the 
crucifixion  which  made  it  a  sacrificial  atonement, 
breaking  the  power  of  the  Mosaic  law,  and  intro- 
ducing a  new  dispensation  of  faith  and  love,  —  a 
dogma  which  has  played  a  very  influential  part  in 
Christian  history.  He  opened  Christianity  too  — 
another  most  momentous  change  —  to  the  Gentile 
world,  and  sought  to  bring  Gentile  and  Jew  into 
one  fellowship  through  the  uniting  bond  of  faith  in 
the  Christ.  And  we  may  find  perhaps  in  him, 


208  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

certainly  in  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews which  proceeded  from  his  apostolic  circle, 
the  germ  of  the  idea  that  the  Christ  was  pre- 
existent,  the  first-born  Son  of  God  and  the  Creator 
of  the  world ;  and  that  in  his  earthly  Messianic 
character  he  was  a  miraculous  incarnation  of  Di- 
vinity, and  redeemed  the  world  by  sharing  its 
infirmities  and  bearing  its  sins  in  his  own  divine 
person.  This  dogma,  which  we  find  developed  to 
some  extent  at  least  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
and  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  and  which  is  a  great 
transformation  of  the  Hebrew  Messianic  idea,  was 
largely  instrumental  in  making  Christianity  accept- 
able after  it  had  passed  westward  beyond  the 
limits  of  Palestine,  and  into  countries  where  the 
Hebrew  conception  in  its  original  form  could  have 
little  power. 

Christianity,  indeed,  under  Paul  effected,  as  has 
been  well  said,  "  a  change  of  base."  Jesus  came 
to  be  represented,  not  only  as  the  Messiah  of  the 
Jew,  but  as  the  Messiah  and  Saviour  of  the  world ; 
and  Christianity  was  enlarged  by  new  ideas  and 
aspirations,  and  its  power  increased  by  the  adop- 
tion of  a  more  logical  method  of  thought.  From 
being  a  small  Jewish  sect,  it  advanced  to  the  hope 
of  becoming  a  universal  religion. 

That  was  the  first  great  change  ;  the  precursor  of 
all  changes,  some  of  them  for  good  and  some  for 
evil,  that  have  followed  in  Christian  history.  Chris-   y 
tianity  then  began  the  process,  we  might  almost 
say  the  policy,  of  adapting  itself  to  the  varied  con- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS. 

clitions,  as  to  intelligence  and  temperament,  of  the 
people  it  was  to  serve.  As  it  was  open  to  Gentile 
believers,  it  became  conformed  quite  as  much  to 
the  traditions  of  their  ancient  faith  as  to  the 
Hebrew.  It  was  through  the  power  of  pagan 
philosophical  and  religious  ideas  that  Jesus  was 
gradually  idealized  from  the  Jewish  Messiah  into 
a  demigod,  and  then  to  a  place  in  the  Godhead 
itself.  It  was  through  the  power  of  pagan  tradi- 
tions that  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  devel- 
oped, that  the  saints  were  elevated  into  the  niches 
of  the  ancient  gods  and  goddesses  to  be  worshipped, 
and  that  the  magnificent  ceremonies  of  symbolic 
sacrifice,  such  as  we  see  now  in  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church,  were  established.  Nor  would  any 
philosophical  statement  of  Christianity  be  com- 
plete which  should  not  especially  show  how  much 
it  owed  its  progress,  at  a  very  early  period,  to  the 
practical  organizing  and  aggressive  power  which  it 
learned  from  the  Roman  Empire,  even  before  the 
Empire  came  under  its  nominal  sway;  and  how 
the  Papal  ecclesiastical  system  which  finally  re- 
sulted—  with  its  supreme  monarch  at  Rome,  Avith 
its  combination  of  spiritual  and  temporal  sover- 
eignty, with  its  royal  pomp  and  wide-spread 
dominion  and  marvellous  vigor  of  organization 
even  to  the  minutest  details  —  was  the  legitimate 
issue  of  the  marriage  of  the  religion  of  the  Christ 
to  the  empire  of  the  Caesars. 

In  the  old  half-ruined  castle  at  Heidelberg,  on 
the  beautiful  facade  of  Otto  Heinrich's  building, 

14 


210  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

are  to  be  seen  images  of  Old-Testament  heroes, 
mingled  promiscuously  with  figures  from  Greek 
mythology,  and  busts  of  Roman  emperors  of  pagan 
days,  and  allegorical  representations  of  Christian 
graces  ;  while  above  the  whole  stand  colossal 
statues  of  Jupiter  and  Pluto,  which  no  shocks  of 
war  nor  ravages  of  weather  have  been  able  to 
shake  from  their  solid  pedestals.  So  do  pagan 
ideas  still  reign  over  large  portions  of  Christen- 
dom ;  and  this  well-preserved  wall,  commemorat- 
ing so  many  ideas  and  times,  finally  illustrates 
how  the  united  contributions  of  Hebrew,  Greek, 
and  Roman  nationalities  have  gone  into  the  con- 
struction of  the  religion  which  holds  the  memory 
of  the  gracious  virtues  of  Jesus. 

Christianity,  however,  has  been  open  not  only 
to  the  reception  of  old  tradition,  but  to  the  forces 
of  advancing  civilization,  of  progressive  thought 
and  reason.  It  has  taken  shape  according  to  the 
taste  and  temperament  and  mental  and  moral 
vigor  of  the  people  accepting  it,  —  among  the 
passional,  warm-blooded  nations  of  the  South,  or 
among  an  excitable  and  aesthetic  people  in  any 
climate,  developing  into  gorgeousness  of  form,  into 
ritual  and  architecture  and  symbolism.  Among  a  / 
people  more  thoughtful,  critical,  individual,  and  * 
cold-blooded,  it  has  been  more  fruitful  in  logical 
systems  of  theology  and  practical  righteousness. 
In  Germany  and  England,  it  yielded  after  a  stormy 
conflict  to  the  Saxon  spirit  of  free  inquiry  and 
the  demands  of  individual  reason,  and  gave  shel- 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     211 

ter  to  the  Reformation  and  Protestantism.  The 
claim  often  made  by  Christian  writers  that  all  the 
distinguishing  and  beneficent  characteristics  of 
modern  civilization  in  Christendom  —  its  science, 
literature,  diffusion  of  knowledge,  free  thought, 
mental  and  material  enterprise,  progress  in  gov- 
ernment and  in  useful  discoveries  and  arts  —  are 
to  be  referred  back  for  their  source  to  primitive 
Christianity,  is  most  futile  in  the  light  of  actual 
history.  The  same  forces  that  may  be  said  to  have 
brought  the  Protestant  Revolution  in  Christen- 
dom, were  the  productive  causes  of  these  special 
features  of  modern  civilization ;  and  Christianity 
did  not  carry  these  germinal  forces  in  its  bosom 
from  the  time  of  its  own  birth,  but  found  them 
in  the  mental  temperament  of  the  nations  of  North- 
ern Europe  and  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  new  men- 
tal era  which  had  set  in  without  much  of  its 
aid.  The  most  that  can  be  justly  claimed  for 
Christianity  is  that  a  large  section  of  the  Christian 
church  yielded  to  the  influence  of  these  forces,  and 
honestly  attempted  to  assimilate  the  new  ideas  and 
spirit  of  the  age  to  its  old  faith.  And  so  in  the 
history  of  Protestantism,  the  Christian  faith  has 
again  and  again  given  way  before  the  rights  of 
private  judgment,  and  recognized  the  formation  of 
sect  after  sect  to  embody  some  new  theological 
thought,  or  some  new  interpretation  of  an  old 
thought,  till  it  covers  almost  every  phase  of  relig- 
ious opinion  that  is  found  in  the  world,  and  almost 
every  form  of  worship,  from  the  practice  of  Feti- 


212  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

chism  to  the  silent  communion  of  the  soul  with 
the  Infinite.  In  fine,  Christianity  in  its  historical 
development,  since  it  became  the  recognized  re- 
ligion of  the  modern  civilized  world,  while  it  has 
been  tethered  fast  on  one  side  by  the  immovable 
organization  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  has 
been  free  on  the  other  to  follow  the  advance  of 
public  opinion,  though  always  halting  behind  the 
most  progressive  pioneers  of  opinion.  Never  lead- 
ing public  opinion,  never  taking  the  initiative  in 
any  forward  step,  it  yet  has  yielded  and  given  voice 
to  beliefs  that  have  been  accepted  by  any  consider- 
able number  of  minds,  and  conformed  in  progress 
to  the  average  intelligence  and  moral  convictions 
of  the  people  adopting  it. 

Whether  Christianity  shall  make  still  further 
advance  in  order  to  receive  the  new  thought  and 
science  of  this  age,  and  stand  ready  to  respond  to 
all  the  demands  of  reason  and  reform,  and  be  able 
to  become  the  permanent  religion  of  the  world,  is 
the  question  which  now  confronts  us.  The  ques- 
tion is  twofold,  —  First,  what  are  the  probabilities 
in  respect  to  the  future  progress  of  Christianity? 
And,  second,  is  Christianity  likely  to  become  the 
permanent  and  universal  religion  of  mankind  ? 
Through  our  answer  to  the  first  question  we  shall 
reach  the  answer  to  the  second. 

There  is  surely  no  ground  for  asserting  that 
there  is  to  be  no  further  progress  in  Christian  his- 
tory. On  the  contrary,  Christendom  is  most  cer- 
tainly tending  by  direct  steps  to  the  adoption  of 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   ITS  DEFINITIONS.    213 

this  rational  view  of  its  own  history  which  I  have 
here  attempted  to  indicate,  far  from  it  as  the  major- 
ity of  the  Christian  church  may  now  appear  to  be. 
The  signs  of  the  times  point  thither;  the  move- 
ment is  in  this  direction.  The  later  books  about 
Jesus  and  his  times  that  have  excited  the  most 
interest  are  all  attempts  to  set  the  career  of  Jesus 
in  natural  relations  with,  the  world.  Rationalism 
appears  in  the  very  citadels  of  Orthodoxy.  Half 
of  the  Church  of  England  is  converted  to  rational- 
istic views.  Germany,  Switzerland,  Italy,  are  fast 
ripening  for  a  new  Protestantism  freer  than  the 
old.  The  old  dogmas  of  Calvinism  are  passing 
away  in  churches  nominally  Calvinistic,  or  are  ap- 
pearing under  rationalistic  forms  of  interpretation. 
Even  the  popular  missionaries  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  make  their  appeals  for  converts  on  the 
ground  that  Catholicism  harmonizes  with  the  freest 
reason  ;  and  a  large  section  of  the  Church  of  Rome 
seems  ready  to  revolt  in  the  interest  of  reason 
against  further  reactionary  attempts  to  centralize 
power  in  the  Pope.  Meantime,  science  and  litera- 
ture outside  of  the  church,  though  in  the  territorial 
limits  of  Christendom,  are  working  everywhere 
in  the  interest  of  spiritual  liberty  and  a  rational- 
istic interpretation  of  Christianity.  Science  makes 
constant  war  on  the  very  idea  of  miracle,  —  of 
miracle  in  the  procedure  of  history,  no  less  than  in 
the  mechanics  of  the  universe.  Rarely  now  by 
any  scholarly  writer  of  any  sect  do  we  find  the  old 
idea  of  miracle  advocated.  Instead  of  being  re- 


214  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

garded  as  a  direct  abrogation  of  natural  law  by 
supernatural  will,  miracle  is  now  pretty  generally 
interpreted  as  the  temporary  action  of  some  higher 
law,  just  as  natural,  though  rarer  in  its  operations ; 
and  some  theological  writers  even  go  so  far  as  to 
affirm  that  reason  may  yet  explain  miracles,  —  a 
concession  that  substantially  abandons  the  miracle- 
idea  ;  as  does  also  the  use  by  many  modern  theolo- 
gians of  the  word  supernatural  in  the  sense  of 
spiritual.  Such  reasoning  only  indicates  the  path 
by  which  Christendom  is  to  pass  from  the  common 
view  of  its  religiyn,  which  makes  it  a  supernatural 
and  mysterious  interpolation  into  the  general  course 
of  events,  to  the  rational  and  scientific  view,  which 
puts  it  into  natural  relations  with  all  history.  That 
this  passage  is  to  be  made,  and  that  this  latter  is 
to  be  the  ultimate  and  generally  accepted  view  of 
Christianity,  we  may  feel  just  as  sure  as  we  are 
that  reason  will  finally  dispel  superstition,  and  that 
the  light  of  to-morrow's  sun  will  scatter  the  dark- 
ness of  this  coming  night. 

Not  very  soon  will  this  step  be  made  by  the 
great  majority  of  the  Chiistian  church  ;  but  at 
some  day  in  the  future  it  must  be  made,  unless  we 
are  to  have  the  singular  spectacle  of  a  cessation  of 
progress  in  religious  ideas,  while  people  shall  be 
advancing  in  all  other  directions  of  thought.  But 

O  c* 

this  will  not  be.     Christianity  will  be  forced  to< 
conform  to  the  fresh  thought  of  the  age  ;  it  must 
be  moulded  by  advancing  science  and  reason ;  it 
must  follow  in  the  current  of  modern  civilization. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   ITS  DEFINITIONS.    215 

And  all  of  it  that  does  not  so  follow  must  be  left 
behind  to  perish  as  an  effete  institution.  Already 
there  are  signs  that  Christianity  in  its  dogmatic 
and  instituted  'forms  is  disintegrating.  The  ten- 
dency to  identify  it  with  its  universal  elements  of 
truth  and  love  is  strong  in  all  the  sects.  Already 
its  freest  thinkers  and  most  rationalistic  sects  are 
at  the  very  limit  of  the  way  down  which  it  is  pos- 
sible to  carry  the  banner  of  a  supernatural  religion. 
They  have  developed  Christianity  to  the  utmost 
verge  it  will  bear  as  a  supernatural  system.  One 
step  further,  and  the  thin  wall  of  supernaturalism 
which  has  hitherto  served  to  protect  Christianity 
as  a  specific  religious  system  is  broken  through, 
and  they  stand  over  the  line  on  the  ground  of 
natural  religion.  Some  of  them  are  already  over, 
and  are  calling  back  to  those  lingering  on  the  line 
that  the  ground  is  solid,  that  the  imagined  pitfalls 
are  not  there,  and  that  the  way  is  clear  and  bright, 
and  stretches  before  them  into  the  illimitable  truth. 
And  now  we  reach  the  answer  to  the  second 
question,  —  Is  Christianity  to  be  the  permanent 
religion  for  man,  destined  to  convert  and  absorb 
all  other  faiths  ?  And  we  may  answer  this  ques- 
tion by  putting  another  in  this  form :  As  soon  as 
Christianity  comes  thus  to  be  recognized,  in  Chris- 
tendom generally,  as  a  natural  phase  in  the  prog- 
ress of  natural  religious  ideas  and  forces,  and  Jesus 
is  put  in  the  line  of  our  natural  humanity,  will  it 
not  follow  that  Christianity  will  then  lose  just 
those  things  which  have  made  it  a  specific  religion, 


216  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

and  hence,  as  such,  cease  to  exist  ?  The  belief  in 
the  Messianic  character  of  Jesus,  or  in  his  having 
been  more  than  a  naturally  endowed  man,  will  then 
have  passed  away.  He  will  stand  -by  the  side  of 
other  great  religious  teachers  and  prophets,  with 
no  authority  different  from  theirs  ;  and  the  New 
Testament  will  take  its  place  among  other  relig- 
ious books  of  the  past,  of  precious  value,  but  to  be 
submitted  in  all  its  parts  to  the  rational  judgment  of 
mankind.  The  Christian-born  man  will  then  stand, 
not  as  having  found  a  finality  in  religious  truth  in 
some  past  authoritative  revelation,  but  as  a  truth- \ 
seeker,  —  gratefully  recognizing  and  using  all  that 
the  past  has  to  give  him,  but  keeping  his  face 
towards  the  future,  and  looking  for  revelations  to 
come  out  of  the  infinite  word  of  truth  that  shall 
eclipse  in  glory  all  revelations  that  have  preceded. 
He  will  stand  with  no  infallibly  authorized  religion 
behind  him ;  with  no  exceptionally  inspired  teacher, 
no  exceptionally  written  books,  as  his  standards ; 
with  no  Lord  less  than  the  Infinite  for  his  spiritual 
Sovereign.  His  own  mind,  thro  ugh  which  pulses  the 
vital  energy  of  the  universal  life,  must  supply  his 
authority,  and  cultured  reason  furnish  him  the  stand- 
ard by  which  all  books  and  teachers  and  revelations 
are  to  be  judged.  He  will  see  that  Christianity,  ^ 
like  Judaism  before  it,  is  provisional,  preparatory, 
educational ;  containing,  alongside  of  the  most  val- 
uable truth,  much  that  is  only  human  error  and 
bigotry  and  superstitious  imagination  ;  and  that  it 
•will  only  have  truly  accomplished  its  providential 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.    217 

mission  when  it  shall  have  opened  into  a  form  of 
faith  that  shall  adhere  to  natural  law,  and  not  to 
miraculous  interjections  of  power,  as  the  manifes- 
tation of  the  Divine  Mind  both  in  things  material 
and  things  spiritual. 

But  though  the  Christian-born  man,  taking  this 
view  of  his  religion,  will  have  no  specific  revelation 
behind  him,  no  past  which  he  is  to  take  on  implicit 
trust  as  religious  authority,  yet  the  whole  of  the 
past  —  not  only  Christianity,  but  the  religions  be- 
fore it  —  will  have  contributed  to  the  formation 
of  the  solid  ground  on  which  he  will  feel  his  feet 
to  be  planted.  He  will  not  have  narrowed  his 
religious  sympathies,  but  widened  them ;  nor  lost 
religious  and  moral  teachers,  but  added  to  them. 
The  number  of  his  saints  and  heroes  will  have  in- 
creased rather  than  diminished.  And  beneath 
him,  feeding  the  very  life  which  he  shall  live,  will 
be  the  religious  thoughts  and  experiences,  the 
struggles  and  triumphs,  the  wisdom  and  prophecy 
and  aspiration,  the  integrity  and  virtue  and  beati- 
tude, of  all  the  races  and  ages  and  religions  that 
have  ever  existed.  By  the  growing  light  of  human 
intelligence,  kept  burning  by  continued  connection 
with  the  eternally  vitalizing  power  of  truth,  he  will 
select  the  good  and  true  from  all,  while  the  evil 
and  false  he  will  leave  aside. 

In  fact,  the  "  Christian,"  in  the  historic  and 
ecclesiastical  sense,  will  then  be  no  more.  If  the 
name  shall  linger,  the  old  meaning  will  have  gone 
out  of  it,  never  to  return.  But  even  the  name 


218  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

cannot  remain,  if  it  shall  stand  in  the  way  of  that 
large  and  generous  fellowship  which  the  spirit  of 
this  epoch  is  striving  to  effect.  When  men  shall 
come  even  to  that  point  that  they  say  that  every 
man  is  a  Christian  who  shares  his  brother's  burden, 
no  matter  whether  as  to  faith  he  is  Mohammedan 
or  Confucian  or  Infidel,  they  will  not  tleem  the 
name  Christian  a  very  important  one  to  keep,  but, 
forgetting  names,  will  join  hands  in  the  fellowship 
of  fraternal  love  and  good  works. 

And  it  is  not  alone  in  Christendom  that  there 
are  indications  of  this  coming  broader  fellowship. 
The  old  Hebrew  faith  has  not  been  stagnant  dur- 
ing these  eighteen  hundred  years  since  Christianity 
parted  company  with  it.  It,  too,  especially  in  these 
latter  years,  has  been  progressing;  so  that  now 
between  the  most  advanced  Jews  and  the  most 
progressive  portion  of  Christendom  there  is  scarcely 
a  shade  of  difference  in  theological  belief.  Fol- 
lowing their  present  tendencies,  these  pioneer 
divisions  must  inevitably  come  together.  But 
why  should  the  Jew  take  the  name  of  the  Chris- 
tian, more  than  the  Christian  the  name  of  the 
Jew?  Or,  in  India,  why  should  that  growing  and 
already  vigorous  sect  of  native  Hindus,  who  have 
abandoned  the  idolatrous  faith  and  practices  of 
the  popular  religion,  and  profess  a  pure  theism, 
adopt  the  Christian  name  more  than  the  Christians 
theirs  ?  They  have  really  passed  beyond  all  that 
the  word  Christian  means  as  defining  a  system  of 
faith;  and,  if  they  should  assume  it,  would  be 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  ITS  DEFINITIONS.     219 

going  back  upon  their  path.  They  gratefully  ac- 
knowledge their  obligations  to  Christianity,  which 
has  come  to  them  through  British  literature  and 
civilization  rather  than  by  direct  Christian  teach- 
ing, as  they  also  confess  their  indebtedness  to  the 
spiritual  philosophy  and  inspiration  of  their  own 
ancient  scriptures.  But  they  claim  that  the  human 
soul  has  as  direct  access  to  truth  to-day  as  it  ever 
had,  and  that  no  authoritative  final  revelation  has 
been  given  in  the  past ;  and  hence  they  stand 
essentially  on  the  same  platform  with  the  rational- 
istic divisions  of  the  Christians  and  the  Jews. 
But  why  should  they  call  themselves  by  either  of 
these  names,  or  by  one  of  them  more  than  the 
other  ? 

In  China,  too,  and  in  Japan,  now  that  they  have 
been  opened  to  the  fresh  enterprise  and  thought 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  progress  in  religious 
ideas  will  inevitably  come  as  the  accompaniment 
of  advance  in  other  directions.  But  is  this  relig- 
ious progress  likely  to  take  the  Christian  name  ? 
The  Jesuits,  who  are  already  on  the  ground,  may 
make  some  converts  from  the  masses  of  the  people ; 
for  the  reason  that  the  mediseval  form  of  Chris- 
tianity which  the  Romish  Church  represents,  and 
which  was  to  a  great  extent  the  product  of  the 
pagan  contributions  which  came  into  the  stream 
of  Christian  history,  is  nearly  on  a  level  with  the 
old  Buddhistic  faith  of  the  Oriental  masses.  But 
the  intelligent  and  thinking  class  in  those  coun- 
tries will  not  be  so  likely  even  as  the  Hindus  to 


220  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

change  their  religion  for  Chris  tianitjr,  for  the  rea- 
sons that  they  have  a  more  rational  religion  than 
the  Hindus  and  are  more  averse  to  change.  But 
they  will  readily  accept  a  religion  that  shall  be 
developed  out  of  their  ancient  faith,  yet  still  have 
that  faith  beneath  it,  —  a  religion  that  shall  keep 
all  that  is  true  in  their  own  scriptures,  and  wel- 
come all  that  is  truth  in  all  other  scriptures,  and 
never  close  the  canon  of  the  continually  uttered 
Word  of  revelation.  They  will  hardly  adopt  a 
religion  that  degrades  Confucius  and  Buddha  into 
the  position  of  blind  heathen  guides,  unworthy 
of  confidence,  and  deifies  a  prophet  of  another 
\  race  ;  but  they  will  receive  a  religion  which  shall 
count  Moses  and  Jesus  and  Confucius  and  Buddha, 
and  all  the  greatly  wise  and  good,  in  the  line  of 
its  prophets,  giving  to  each  the  honor  due  for  the 
truth  he  saw  and  told,  and  for  the  good  his  life 
achieved. 

Am  I  visionary,  —  a  mere  dreamer,  — if  I  seem 
to  see  that  from  all  these  manifest  tendencies  will 
come  forth  eventually  another  form  of  faith  and 
worship,  which  shall  not  be  Hinduism  nor  Buddh- 
ism nor  Judaism  nor  Christianity  nor  any  system 
of  faith  now  existing,  but  a  broader  religious 
development  of  humanity,  in  which  all  techni- 
cal distinctions  between  these  specific  forms  of 
religion  shall  be  obliterated,  and  nations  and  races 
shall  meet  in  a  spiritual  fellowship  whose  limits 
shall  be  commensurate  with  humanity  itself? 
Nay,  not  a  dreamer.  I  believe  I  am  but  reading 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   ITS  DEFINITIONS.     221 

the  future  by  the  light  of  past  history  and  of  pres- 
ent social  and  mental  forces.  This  epoch  of  the 
nineteenth  century  repeats  to  some  extent,  though 
with  vastly  larger  and  more  favoring  opportunity, 
the  religious  conditions  and  combinations  that  ex- 
isted just  prior  to  the  origin  of  Christianity.  As 
that  epoch  witnessed  a  decadence  of  old  religious 
systems,  and  brought  together  in  Western  Asia 
the  elements  of  religions  and  of  civilizations  that 
had  previously  flourished  apart,  and  from  their 
union  there  was  begotten  a  higher  form  of  faith 
and  life,  so  now  it  seems  as  if  the  various  religions 
of  the  world,  having  served  their  providential  pur- 
pose apart,  are  being  brought  into  contact,  in  order 
that  they  may  serve  to  show  each  other's  defects, 
and  confirm  each  other's  truths,  and  stimulate  to 
higher  thought  and  a  larger  charity  and  a  more 
beneficent  activity ;  and  thus  ultimately  may  be 
created,  not  by  any  mechanical  eclecticism  but  by 
the  organic  laws  of  social  growth,  a  purer  form  of 
religious  belief  and  practice,  under  which  all  na- 
tions and  races  shall  be  joined  as  different  members 
in  one  household,  to  serve  one  Parental  law  of 
truth  and  right,  and  to  stand  by  each  other  as 
brothers  whose  hearts  beat  with  one  blood  and 
respond  to  the  pulsations  of  one  love. 


222  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 


THE  GENIUS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  AND  FREE 
RELIGION.1 

BY  FRANCIS    ELLINGWOOD  ABBOT. 

say  that  the  age  we  live  in  is  pre-eminently 
an  era  of  revolution,  is  to  utter  a  stale  and 
profitless  truism.  The  fact  mirrors  itself  on  every 
open  eye,  and  voices  itself  to  every  unstopped  ear. 
Not  merely  in  the  forms  of  government,  the  adjust- 
ments of  society,  and  other  external  matters,  con- 
stant changes  occur  which  are  perceptible  by  all ; 
but  the  more  observing  also  detect  indications  of 
some  profound  and  hidden  movement  in  the  depths 
of  the  human  spirit.  The  world's  heart  is  ill  at 
ease.  Miseries  and  oppressions  and  crimes  are,  it 
is  true,  like  the  poor,  ever  with  us ;  but  cancel 
these,  and  the  world's  unrest  will  still  remain.  Its 
secret  inquietude  betrays  itself  even  in  the  tone  of 
the  popular  poems  and  novels  of  the  day;  and 
although  the  Church,  abundantly  assiduous  with 
prescription  and  pill,  promises  to  cure  the  distem- 
per, she  encounters  a  most  alarming  symptom  in 
the  patient's  distrust  of  the  physician.  In  fact,  the 
patient  refuses  to  be  a  patient ;  and  what  the 
Church  accounts  disease  turns  out  to  be  a  new- 
born hunger  for  truth  and  life,  —  a  most  excellent 

1  A  lecture  delivered  in  the  First  Course  of  "  Sunday  Afternoon 
Lectures  "  in  Horticultural  Hall,  Boston,  February  14,  1869. 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.          223 

sign  of  spiritual  health.  The  world  needs,  not  to 
be  doctored,  but  to  be  fed ;  and  whoso  brings  sub- 
stantial food  fairly  cooked  finds  a  hearty  welcome. 
The  old  faiths,  like  cotyledons  well  stored  with 
starch,  are  perishing  as  the  spring  advances,  yet 
only  to  yield  their  contents  as  nourishment  for  a 
better  faith.  Although  there  are  no  "  new  truths  " 
except  as  the  discovery,  or  riper  development  in 
human  thought  and  life,  of  truths  old  as  God,  yet 
in  this  sense  new  truths  are  creating  to-day  a  new 
faith  in  the  world  before  which  the  elder  faiths  lose 
their  power.  The  grounds  of  human  hope,  the 
motives  of  human  action,  the  objects  of  human  as- 
piration, are  slowly  changing ;  and  because  change 
in  these  respects  involves  corresponding  change  in 
all  the  relations  of  public  and  private  life,  the  great 
visible  movements  of  the  age  are  but  indices  of  the 
greater  invisible  movements  in  the  spiritual  con- 
sciousness of  mankind.  Because  all  questions  of 
immediate  interest  in  the  amelioration  of  society 
depend  ultimately  on  deeper  questions  in  the  soul, 
there  can  be  no  theme  of  profounder  practical  im- 
portance than  that  to  which  I  now  invite  your  at- 
tention,—  the  "Genius  of  Christianity  and  Free 
Religion."  In  the  conflict  between  these  two 
faiths,  and  in  the  law  of  spiritual  development  by 
which  the  one  must  increase  and  the  other  decrease, 
lies,  as  I  believe,  the  secret  of  the  religious  rest- 
lessness of  the  times.  With  the  seriousness  be- 
fitting so  great  a  subject,  and  yet  with  no  shrinking 
from  the  plainness  of  speech  which  equally  befits  it, 


224  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

I  wish  to  express  convictions  neither  hastily  formed 
nor  weakly  held,  for  which  I  ask  from  you  only  a 
calm  and  candid  hearing.  Whether  right  or  wrong, 
they  must  affect  profoundly  the  well-being  of  every 
one  who  makes  them  the  basis  of  intelligent  and 
fearless  action.  Let  them,  then,  be  intelligently 
and  fearlessly  judged. 

A  savage  coming  to  the  sea-shore  at  several  dis- 
tant points  might  perhaps  imagine  that  he  had 
come  to  several  disconnected  seas,  not  knowing 
that  the  sea  is  one.  So  he  who  beholds  without 
reflection  the  great  religions  of  the  world  might 
conceive  these  to  be  separate  and  distinct,  not 
knowing  that  religion  is  one.  It  must  have  been 
from  some  such  conception  as  this  that  men  used  to 
class  Christianity  by  itself  as  wholly  true,  and  all 
other  religions  in  a  group  by  themselves  as  wholly 
false.  But  this  distinction  cannot  stand.  The 
question  of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  different  relig- 
ions is  purely  a  question  of  degree.  They  are  all 
expressions  of  the  universal  aspiration  of  humanity, 
and  are  so  far  all  based  on  eternal  truth.  But  each 
of  them  has  its  own  special  historic  form,  deter- 
mined by  the  personality  of  its  founder,  by  the  spirit 
of  the  age  in  which  it  arose,  and  by  the  character 
of  the  historic  forces  by  which  it  was  developed ; 
and  so  far  it  must  share  the  error  which  clings  to 
all  things  human.  The  worst  religion  has  its  truth, 
—  the  best  has  its  error.  Thus  all  religions  are  one, 
in  virtue  of  their  common  origin  in  the  aspiring  and 
worshipping  spirit  of  man ;  while  they  are  many, 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.          225 

in  virtue  of  the  historic  form  peculiar  to  each.  The 
universal  element  in  each  belongs,  not  to  it,  but  to 
universal  human  nature  ;  while  its  special  element, 
its  historic  form,  is  its  own. 

Whoever,  therefore,  would  find  the  oneness  of 
all  religions  must  seek  it  in  the  universal  spirit- 
ual consciousness  of  the  race  ;  while  he  who  would 
learn  the  characteristics  of  any  particular  relig- 
ion must  seek  this  in  its  history  and  origin.  The 
object  of  the  first  seeker  is  generic  unity,  —  the 
object  of  the  second  is  specific  difference.  Their 
methods,  consequently,  must  correspond  with  their 
objects,  and  be  the  converse  of  each  other.  The 
one  must  neglect  peculiarities,  and  attend  to  re- 
semblances ;  the  other  must  neglect  resemblances, 
and  attend  to  peculiarities.  To  claim  as  peculiar 
to  one  religion  what  is  common  to  all  religions,  — 
a  claim  often  made  in  behalf  of  Christianity,  —  is 
unreasonable ;  but  it  is  equally  unreasonable  to 
ignore  its  actual  peculiarities.  No  estimate  of  a 
great  historical  religion  can  be  just,  unless  formed 
by  the  impartial,  scientific  application  of  the  his- 
torical method. 

In  attempting,  therefore,  to  determine  what 
Christianity  actually  is,  as  a  great  fact  in  human 
history,  I  shall  not  endeavor  to  frame  a  transcen- 
dental or  mystical  formula,  and  thus,  spider-like, 
evolve  a  definition  of  it  out  of  my  own  conscious- 
ness. On  the  contrary,  believing  Christianity  to 
be  the  loftiest  of  all  historical  religions,  I  believe 
that,  like  all  other  historical  religions,  it  can  only 

15 


226  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

be  understood  by  the  study  of  its  sacred  books,  its 
traditions,  its  institutions,  its  origin,  its  history. 
What  were  the  ideas,  purposes,  and  character  of 
Jesus,  and  what  was  the  nature  of  the  faith  which 
took  fts  name  from  him  and  became  Christianity  as 
we  see  it  in  the  world  to-day,  must  be  learned  his- 
torically or  not  at  all.  Abstract  speculation  can 
throw  no  light  on  these  questions  of  fact.  History 
is  the  key  to  the  problem  of  Christianity. 

CHRISTIANITY   HISTORICALLY   DEFINED. 

Viewed,  then,  as  one  of  the  world's  great  histor- 
ical faiths,  Christianity  is  religion  as  taught  in  the 
New  Testament,  developed  in  the  history  of  the 
Christian  Church,  and  based  on  faith  in  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  as  the  Christ  of  God. 

If  we  attempt  to  make  Christianity  independent 
of  its  founder  and  of  the  only  records  we  possess 
of  his  life  and  teachings  (an  attempt  sometimes 
made  by  modern  radical  thinkers),  we  simply 
abandon  the  historical  ground  altogether,  identify 
Christianity  with  Religion,  and  annihilate  the  spe- 
cific difference  between  Christianity  and  all  other 
historical  faiths.  It  thereby  becomes  impossible  to 
distinguish  it  from  them  on  the  same  level ;  we  re- 
solve it  into  "  natural  religion,"  and  must  treat  all 
other  religions  as  merely  various  modifications  of  it. 
I  need  not  say  how  arbitrary  and  irrational  this 
seems  to  me.  If  Christianity  is  itself  "  natural 
religion,"  —  only  love  to  God  and  love  to  man,  — 
how  can  we  escape  calling  Brahmanism  and  Buddh- 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.          227 

ism  and  Confucianism  and  the  rest  different  forms 
of  Christianity  ?  Would  there  be  nothing  absurd 
in  that  ?  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  say  that  religion 
is  always  natural,  and  that  Christianity,  Brahman- 
ism,  Buddhism,  Confucianism,  Zoroastrianism,  Ma- 
hometanism,  and  so  forth,  are  all  diverse  historical 
forms  of  this  one  natural  religion,  I  think  we  take 
the  only  sensible  ground.  We  then  put  all  histor- 
ical faiths  on  the  same  level,  and  can  distinguish 
them  one  from  another  by  their  different  historical 
characters.  But  to  do  this  is  at  once  to  sweep 
away  all  the  fine-spun  metaphysical,  transcenden- 
tal, and  purely  ethical  definitions  of  Christianity,  in 
order  to  make  room  for  its  only  historical  defini- 
tion, namely,  religion  as  taught  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, developed  in  the  history  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  based  on  faith  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as 
the  Christ  of  God. 

The  ethical  and  spiritual  teachings  of  the  New 
Testament  are  not  peculiar  to  it ;  as  is  well  known, 
they  can  all  be  paralleled  in  other  ancient  writings. 
These,  therefore,  will  not  help  us  to  comprehend 
that  which  is  peculiar  to  Christianity  and  makes  it 
a  distinct  historical  religion  ;  they  belong  to  the 
universal  religion  of  man;  appear  in  the  sacred 
books  of  all  religious,  and  are  the  private  property 
of  none.  In  accordance  with  the  true  historical 
method,  therefore,  I  shall  pass  by  these  universal 
truths,  which  find  perhaps  their  best  expression  in 
the  New  Testament,  in  order  to  concentrate  our 
attention  on  the  fundamental  characteristic  of 


228  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Christianity,  namely,  its  faith  in  the  Christ.  It  is 
this  which  separates  it  from  all  other  religions, 
constitutes  its  prime  peculiarity,  and  serves  as  foun- 
dation to  the  other  leading  doctrines  of  Christian 
theology.  Purity,  benevolence,  mercy,  forgiveness, 
humility,  self-sacrifice,  love,  and  so  forth,  are  no- 
where more  beautifully  taught  than  in  the  dis- 
courses, conversations,  and  parables  of  Jesus;  but 
these  make  the  universal,  not  the  special,  element 
in  the  New  Testament,  —  these  make  its  religion, 
not  its  Christianity,  —  and  it  is  now  its  Christianity 
that  we  seek  to  comprehend. 

So  far  as  our  present  object  is  concerned,  we 
need  not  be  embarrassed  by  the  doubts  resting  over 
the  authorship,  the  dates,  and  the  historic  credi- 
bility of  the  various  books  of  the  New  Testament. 
No  critical  scholar  of  the  present  day  regards  the 
gospels  as  wholly  mythical.  Yet,  unless  they  are 
wholly  mythical,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that 
Jesus  did  actually  claim  to  be  the  Christ  or  Messiah, 
that  is,  the  founder  and  sovereign  of  the  "  kingdom 
of  heaven."  So  all-pervading  is  this  claim,  that  to 
eliminate  it  from  the  gospels  is  to  reduce  them  at 
once  to  unadulterated  myth.  If  misunderstood  on 
this  point,  there  is  no  reason  tc  suppose  that  Jesus 
has  been  understood  on  any  point ;  if  his  reported 
sayings  on  this  subject  are  ungenuine,  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  any  of  his  sayings  to  be  genuine. 
In  the  words  of  James  Martineau  ["  National  Re- 
view," April,  1863] :  "  Whoever  can  read  the 
New  Testament  with  a  fresh  eye  must  be  struck 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,  ETC.          229 

with  the  prominence  everywhere  of  the  Messianic 
idea.  It- seems  to  be  the  ideal  framework  of  the 
whole,  —  of  history,  parable,  dialogue  ;  of  Pauline 
reasoning ;  of  Apocalyptic  visions.  '  Art  thou  he 
that  should  come  ?  '  This  question  gives  the  ideal 
.standard  by  which,  on  all  hands,  —  on  the  part 
of  disciples,  relations,  enemies,  of  Saul  the  perse- 
cutor and  Paul  the  apostle,  —  the  person  and  pre- 
tensions of  Christ  are  tried.  His  birth,  his  acts, 
his  sufferings,  are  so  disposed  as  to  '  fulfil  what  was 
spoken '  by  the  prophets :  so  that  the  whole  pro- 
gramme of  his  life  would  seem  to  have  pre-existed 
in  the  national  imagination." 

That  these  Avords  of  Martineau  are  true,  I  am 
profoundly  convinced.  The  Messianic  faith  is  the 
soul  of  the  entire  New  Testament,  giving  unity  to 
the  gospels,  epistles,  and  apocalypse,  and  making 
Christianity  a  vital  organism.  In  vain  shah1  we  seek 
to  comprehend  the  spiritual  power  of  Christianity, 
and  determine  its  agency  in  the  evolution  of  modern 
civilization,  until  we  have  first  comprehended  the 
Messianic  idea,  and  discovered  the  sources,  the 
channels,  and  the  limitations  of  its  power.  In  vain 
shall  we  seek  to  solve  the  mystery  of  that  spiritual 
Nile  which  has  fertilized  the  centuries,  until  we 
discover  its  Lake  Nyanza  in  the  Messianic  hope  of 
Judaism  and  its  widening  Delta  in  the  advent  of 
Free  Religion.  History,  not  theology,  must  reveal 
the  true  origin  of  Christianity ;  and  when  we  are 
prepared  to  accept  her  calm  instructions,  we  shall 
learn  that  the  greatest  of  the  world's  historical 


230  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

religions  is  no  bastard  with  the  bar-sinister  of 
miracle  athwart  its  scutcheon,  but  the  lawful  off- 
spring of  Jewish  faith  and  Greek  thought.  In  the 
New  Testament,  if  we  will  but  read  aright,  is  am- 
ple proof  of  its  pedigree.  In  the  first  three  gospels 
we  find  the  Jewish  Messiahship  assumed  by  Jesus  ; 
in  the  fourth  gospel,  we  find  it  interpreted  by  the 
Logos  doctrine,  and  thus  rationalized  by  Greek 
philosophy  ;  in  the  book  of  Acts  and  in  the  Epistles 
we  find  it  stripped  by  Peter  and  Paul  of  its  local 
and  national  limitations,  and  thus  fitted  to  become 
the  basis  of  a  world-wide  church.  The  organizing 
genius  of  Rome  supplied  the  element  necessary  to 
convert  the  idea  into  an  institution ;  and  the  tri- 
umph of  Christianity  was  assured. 

THE   MESSIANIC    IDEA   THE   GREAT    TAP-ROOT    OP 
CHRISTIANITY. 

Here,  then,  in  the  New  Testament  itself,  the 
Messianic  idea  appears  as  the  great  tap-root  of 
Christianity ;  and  we  see,  already  fulfilled,  all  the 
intrinsic  spiritual  conditions  of  its  subsequent 
growth.  Given  the  corresponding  extrinsic  his- 
torical conditions,  what  need  of  a  miracle  to  ac- 
count for  its  wonderful  development?  It  would 
have  been  a  miracle  indeed,  if,  in  the  actual  stale 
of  the  Roman  Empire  at  that  time,  Christianity  had 
failed  to  become  the  State  Religion.  Into  what  a 
melancholy  and  senile  decrepitude  had  fallen  its 
pagan  competitors  !  The  decaying  mythologies  of 
Persia,  E^rypt,  Greece,  Rome,  were  the  spiritual 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,  ETC.          231 

compost  whence  the  vigorous  young  plant  derived 
its  sap.  Universal  putrefaction  is  a  powerful  fer- 
tilizer. To  the  spread  of  every  religion,  however 
rapid  (and  Christianity  is  in  this  respect  110  more 
remarkable  than  Buddhism  or  Mahometanism),  the 
'  same  explanation  applies,  —  adaptation  to  the  spirit 
and  circumstances  of  the  times.  It  is  customary 
among  Unitarians  to  extol  the  purity  of  "  primitive 
Christianity,"  and  to  bewail  what  they  call  its  the- 
ological and  ecclesiastical  "  corruption  "  during  the 
first  three  centuries.  This  is  to  praise  the  blossom 
at  the  expense  of  the  fruit,  —  to  indulge  in  that 
idealization  of  childhood  which  is  practical  depre- 
ciation of  manhood.  The  triumph  of  Athanasius 
over  Arius,  and  of  Augustine  over  Pelagius,  was 
not  accidental.  On  the  contrary,  the  gradual  for- 
mation of  the  Athanasian  and  Augustiriian  theology 
was  the  strictly  logical  and  natural  development 
of  the  claim  made  by  Jesus  of  being  the  Saviour  of 
the  world ;  while  the  gradual  erection  of  the  Ro- 
mish hierarchy  was  the  equally  logical  and  natural 
result  of  the  attempt  to  found  a  universal  church 
upon  this  claim.  How  could  a  man  be  the  Saviour 
of  the  world?  Only  by  being  also  Crod.  The 
Romish  Church,  with  its  theology  of  salvation 
through  the  God-Man,  so  far  from  being  a  "  cor- 
ruption of  primitive  Christianity,"  was  its  neces- 
sary historical  evolution  ;  the  Messianic  idea,  freed 
from  its  merely  Hebrew  application,  enfolded 
mediaeval  Catholicism  as  the  acorn  enfolds  the  oak. 
As  the  Jewish  theocracy  was  at  last  obliged  to  en- 


232  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

throne  an  earthly  king  as  the  representative  of 
Jehovah,  so  the  Christian  Church  was  obliged  at 
last  to  enthrone  the  Pope  as  the  representative  of 
the  Christ.  It  betrays,  therefore,  a  lack  of  the 
philosophical,  the  scientific,  the  historical  spirit,  to 
call  that  a  corruption  which  was  in  truth  a  devel- 
opment. 

KOMAKISM  THE   TBUE   CHKISTIANITY. 

As  the  history  of  philosophical  systems  is  the 
truest  exponent  of  their  logical  tendencies,  so  the 
history  of  religions  is  the  truest  interpreter  of  their 
genius  and  innermost  spirit.  The  Romish  Church, 
whether  in  its  hierarchy,  its  institutions,  its  archi- 
tecture, its  painting,  its  music,  its  literature,  its 
theology,  its  spiritual  power,  its  types  of  spiritual 
character,  or  its  missionary  zeal,  is  the  ripened  fruit 
of  the  Messianic  germ,  the  supreme  culmination  of 
Christianity.  Christian  poetry  and  art,  no  less  than 
Christian  character  and  faith,  have  reached  their 
zenith  in  the  Catholic  Church.  The  cathedrals, 
the  Madonnas,  the  anthems,  Dante's  Divine  Com- 
edy (the  great  poem  of  Christianity,  setting  it  to 
eternal  music),  were  born  in  the  souls  of  Catholics. 
The  Protestant  Reformation  was  simply  the  first 
stage  in  the  decay  of  Christianity.  In  Wickliffe 
and  Huss,  in  Luther  and  Calvin  and  their  com- 
peers, the  modern  spirit  came  to  self-conscious- 
ness. These  men  were,  although  unwittingly,  the 
first  apostles  of  Free  Religion.  Socinus,  Priestley, 
Channing,  Parker,  and  the  other  reformers  of  the 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.          233 

Reformation,  carried  the  work  of  disintegration 
still  farther,  and  gave  voice  to  the  deepening  de- 
mand of  humanity  for  spiritual  freedom.  "  Lib- 
eral Christianity,"  which  means  Christianity  as 
liberal  as  it  can  be,  has  reduced  the  Messianic  idea 
to  its  minimum  dimensions  and  its  minimum  power ; 
the  next  step  is  outside  of  Christianity  altogether. 
Gradual  in  its  growth  and  gradual  in  its  decay,  — 
coming  to  its  prime  in  the  Romish,  and  lying  at 
Death's  door  in  the  Unitarian  Church,  —  Christi- 
anity has  realized  the  highest  possibilities  of  the 
Messianic  faith,  has  accomplished  the  utmost  which 
that  faith  can  accomplish  for  man,  and  is  now  des- 
tined to  wane  before  a  faith  higher  and  purer  still. 
Its  history,  from  beginning  to  end,  is  the  history 
of  men's  faith  in  the  Christ ;  its  first  and  last  word 
is,  by  the  law  of  its  being, —  "  Come  to  Jesus!  " 
In  proportion  as  the  name  of  Jesus  grows  infre- 
quent on  its  lips,  —  in  proportion  as  his  person  fails 
to  attract  its  supreme  homage  and  worship, — in 
that  proportion  it  ceases  to  be  Christianity,  and 
becomes  merged  in  that  universal  religion  whose 
only  history  is  the  history  of  soul.  Let  me  repeat, 
with  emphasis,  that,  while  Christianity  is  the  per- 
ishing form,  religion  is  the  eternal  substance, — 
that  the  universal  truths,  the  inspiring  hopes,  the 
tender  consolations,  the  quickening  impulses,  the 
divinely  beautiful  spirit,  which  have  made  and  still 
make  the  name  of  Christianity  so  dear  to  the  un- 
distinguishing  many,  belong  to  the  eternal  sub- 
stance and  not  to  the  perishing  form.  Religion 


234  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

must  endure  ;  but  as  Christianity  came  into  his- 
tory, so  it  must  go  out  from  history.  Its  inspira- 
tion and  life  have  come  in  and  through  its  faith  in 
the  Christ,  the  one  Lord  and  Master  and  Saviour 
of  the  world  ;  and  its  church,  or  visible  embodiment 
in  a  social  and  spiritual  fellowship,  has  planted  itself 
from  the  beginning  on  this  faith  as  its  own  eternal 
rock  and  corner-stone. 

There  is  no  clearer  recognition  of  the  funda- 
mental character  of  the  Christian  Confession  than 
in  the  following  words  of  Dr.  Hedge,  a  Unitarian 
clergyman  who  perceives  how  much  is  involved  in 
the  apparent  truism  that  Christianity  has  a  his- 
tory :  — 

"  I  am  far  from  maintaining  that  Christianity 
must  stand  or  fall  with  the  belief  in  miracles  ;  but 
I  do  maintain  that  Christian  churches,  as  organized 
bodies  of  believers,  must  stand  or  fall  with  the 
Christian  Confession,  —  that  is,  the  Confession  of 
Christ  as  divinely  human  Master  and  Head.  .  .  . 
Things  exist  in  this  world  by  distinction  one  from 
another.  Enlarge  as  you  will  the  idea  and  scope 
of  a  church,  there  must  be  somewhere,  whether 
stated  or  not  in  any  formal  symbol,  a  line  which 
defines  it,  and  separates  those  who  are  in  it  from 
those  who  are  without.  The  scope  of  the  Liberal 
Church  is  large ;  but  every  thing  and  everybody 
cannot  be  embraced  in  it.  The  Christian  Confes- 
sion is  its  boundary  line,  within  which  alone  it  can 
do  the  work  which  Providence  has  given  it  to  do. 

.  .  The  distinction  involved  in  the  Christian  Con- 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETCl        235 

fession  is  organic  and  vital ;  its  abolition  would  be 
the  dissolution  of  the  ecclesiastical  world  and  the 
end  of  Christendom." — ["Reason  in  Religion," 
pp.  218,  219.] 

This  statement  of  Dr.  Hedge  is  the  verdict  of  his- 
tory itself.  On  the  Christian  Confession,  Jesus  him- 
self founded  his  church ;  on  the  Christian  Confession, 
Peter,  John,  Paul,  and  the  rest,  built  up  its  walls ; 
on  the  Christian  Confession,  Augustine,  Athanasius, 
and  their  fellow-workers,  roofed  and  completed  the 
great  historic  edifice.  From  the  vast  ecclesiastical 
hierarchy  of  Rome  to  the  puny  "  National  Confer- 
ence of  Unitarian  and  other  Christian  Churches,'' 
all  the  sects  and  sub-sects  of  Christendom,  with 
one  consenting  voice,  confess  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  the  spiritual 
King  of  mankind  by  the  grace  of  God.  In  all 
the  endless  controversies  respecting  doctrines, 
forms,  or  politics,  all  parties  have  accepted  the 
Christian  Confession  as  the  universal  creed  of 
Christians.  Whatever  differences  of  opinion  ex- 
ist or  have  existed  concerning  the  nature,  the 
official  function,  or  the  spiritual  mission  of  the 
Christ,  the  Christian  Confession  has  remained 
the  corner-stone  of  the  Christian  Church ;  and 
a  Christian  will  no  more  challenge  the  Christian 
Confession  that  "  Jesus  is  the  Christ,"  than  a 
Mahometan  will  challenge  the  Mahometan  Con- 
fession that  "  there  is  but  one  God,  and  Mahomet 
is  his  prophet." 

It  is  in  the  first  gospel,  not  the  fourth,  that  Jesus 


236  FREEDOM   AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

says  to  Peter,  on  his  confessing  him  to  be  "  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  —  "Blessed 
art  thou,  Simon  Bar-jona  ;  for  flesh  and  blood  have 
not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  who  is  in 
heaven.  And  I  say  also  unto  thee,  That  thou  art 
Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  [i.  e.,  your  faith  in  me  as 
the  Christ]  I  will  build  my  church ;  and  the  gates 
of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it."  It  is  in  the 
first  gospel,  not  the  fourth,  that  Jesus  replies  to 
the  high  priest,  adjuring  him  to  declare  whether 
he  is  the  Christ,  —  "I  am.  Moreover  I  say  to 
you,  Henceforth  ye  will  see  the  Son  of  Man  sit- 
ting on  the  right  hand  of  Power,  and  coining  on 
the  clouds  of  heaven"  [Noyes'  translation].  It  is 
in  the  first  gospel,  not  in  the  fourth,  that  Jesus  ex- 
plicitly makes  the  Christian  Confession  the  neces- 
sary condition  of  salvation :  "  Whosoever,  there- 
fore, shall  confess  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also 
confess  before  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven  ;  but 
whosoever  shall  deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I 
also  deny  before  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven."  It 
would  be  easy  to  cite  scores  of  passages  to  the 
same  effect ;  but  these  are  amply  sufficient. 

In  the  same  spirit,  Peter  declares,  in  the  book  of 
Acts,  that  "  there  is  no  other  name  given  under 
heaven  whereby  men  can  be  saved."  In  the  same 
spirit,  Paul  declares  to  the  Galatians,  "  There  be 
some  that  trouble  you  and  would  pervert  the  gos- 
pel of  Christ.  But  though  we,  or  an  angel  from 
heaven,  preach  any  other  gospel  unto  you  than 
that  which  we  have  preached  unto  you,  let  him  be 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.  237 

accursed ; "  and  to  the  Romans,  "  If  thou  shalt 
confess  with  the  mouth  that  Jesus  is  Lord,  and 
shalt  believe  in  thy  heart  that  God  has  raised  him 
from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved  ;  for  with  the 
heart  man  believeth  so  as  to  obtain  righteousness, 
and  with  the  mouth  confesseth  so  as  to  obtain  sal- 
vation." In  the  same  spirit,  John  exclaims  in  his 
first  epistle,  "  Who  is  a  liar,  but  he  that  clenieth 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  ?  Whosoever  denieth  the 
Son,  the  same  has,  not  the  Father."  And  so  on. 
Sayings  such  as  these  meet  the  eye  on  almost  every 
page  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  so  far  from  be- 
ing accidental  or  non-essential,  they  utter  the 
heart-faith,  the  inmost  spirit  of  Christianity,  as  a 
distinct  religion. 

CHRISTIANITY  IS   DEVELOPED   JUDAISM. 

The  one  grand  aim  of  Jesus  was  to  establish  the 
"  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  "  and  this,  however  univer- 
salized and  spiritualized,  was  in  essence  the  ancient 
ideal  theocracy,  in  which  the  Christ  was  to  be  the 
God-appointed  king.  From  the  day  when,  on  the 
very  eve  of  death,  Jesus  boldly  affirmed  before 
Pilate^  and  the  high  priest  his  title  to  the  Messi- 
anic throne,  the  highest  and  deepest  prayer  of  his 
disciples  has  been  that  his  throne  may  be  estab- 
lished for  ever  in  the  hearts  of  all  mankind.  Was 
it  an  accident  that  the  new  faith  took  its  name,  not 
from  the  individual  Jesus,  but  from  his  royal  office  ? 
Christianity  was  the  faith  of  the  Christians,  and 
the  Christians  were  those  who  believed  in  the 


238  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Christ.  Hence  the  condition  of  Christian  fellow- 
ship has  always  been  fealty  to  Jesus  as  common 
Lord  and  Master  ;  and  in  this,  the  organic  bond  of 
union  in  all  branches  of  the  Christian  Church,  the 
innermost  life  of  Christianity  has,  by  the  very  law 
of  its  being,  only  expressed  itself  outwardly  in 
social  form.  In  short,  the  history  of  Christianity  is 
simply  the  history  of  the  Messianic  faith,  deepened 
and  widened,  developed  and  spiritualized,  in  the 
highest  possible  degree,  —  the  history  of  the  vary- 
ing fortunes  which  have  befallen  the  attempt  of 
Jesus  to  found  a  universal  spiritual  empire  in  the 
hearts  of  men  ;  and  he  will  seek  in  vain  to  fathom 
the  depths  of  Christianity  who  looks  elsewhere 
than  to  this  Messianic  faith  for  the  secret  of  its 
peculiar  religious  power. 

Furthermore,  unless  liberal  thinkers  cease  to 
philosophize  loosely  about  Christianity  and  learn 
to  do  complete  justice  to  its  Messianic  or  special 
element,  a  problem  of  great  importance  will  remain 
permanently  insoluble.  It  is  only  by  tracing  the 
course  of  the  Messianic  idea  back  to  its  fountain- 
head  in  the  living  faith  of  Judaism,  that  it  becomes 
possible  to  discover  the  natural  origin  of  Christi- 
anity. If  the  sources  of  Christianity  reach  no 
further  back  than  to  the  individual  soul  of  Jesus  ; 
if  so  mighty  a  power  in  the  world's  history  was 
born  of  one  man's  single  life,  and  owed  nothing  to 
earlier  ancestors  ;  if  no  deep  unity  can  be  discov- 
ered between  Jesus  and  the  spirit  of  his  age,  in 
virtue  of  which  he  became  the  natural  represent- 


GENIUS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.          239 

ative  of  humanity  in  his  day  and  generation,  and 
brought  to  a  living  focus  the  religious  forces  of  his 
times,  —  then  is  Christianity  indeed  a  miracle,  and 
Jesus  may  well  have  been  God.  The  naturalistic 
interpretation  of  Christianity  fails  utterly,  unless 
it  can  reveal  an  adequate  cause  for  its  tremendous 
influence  on  the  course  of  history.  Once  admit 
that  a  Jewish  peasant  lifted  the  whole  world  up  to 
a  higher  spiritual  level,  not  by  embodying  in  him- 
self the  best  religious  life  of  his  era,  but  by  the 
sheer  strength  of  his  own  individuality,  —  and  I, 
for  one,  must  perforce  admit  him  to  have  been 
Omnipotence  in  disguise.  The  incarnation  of  God 
would  be  a  less  miracle  than  the  upheaval  of  the 
planet  by  a  human  arm.  But  if  Jesus  was  a  man, 
and  acted  under  natural  human  conditions,  then 
his  power  must  have  been  the  power  of  human- 
ity ;  behind  him,  beneath  him,  within  him,  must 
have  been  the  spirit  of  his  age,  concentrating  in 
his  word  the  vitality  of  his  race.  SomeAvhere  must 
he  have  found  a  foothold  in  the  profoundest  faith 
of  his  own  nation,  or  he  could  not  have  moved 
the  universal  consciousness  of  man.  The  secret  of 
success,  with  every  great  soul,  lies  in  sympathy 
with  his  times,  without  which  his  most  magnificent 
utterance  perishes  on  the  air.  Given,  therefore,  the 
humanity  of  Jesus,  it  is  imperatively  necessary  to 
discover  the  faith  which  he  and  his  countrymen 
must  have  held  in  common.  Where  shall  we 
search  for  this  except  in  that  Messianic  idea 
which  is  the  core  and  heart  of  his  religion? 


240     FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Here  we  find  established  a  vital  relation  between 
Jesus  and  the  Hebrew  people.  The  moment  we 
accept  the  clew  here  offered,  the  labyrinth  ceases 
to  bewilder, — our  path  is  clear.  It  would  be  at 
the  same  time  tedious  and  pedantic,  were  I  to  re- 
hearse in  detail  the  evidence  which  has  convinced 
my  own  mind  that  Christianity  is  only  a  developed 
Judaism.  From  the  time  of  the  Babylonish  Cap- 
tivity, the  narrow  theocracy  of  earlier  ages  began 
to  develop  in  Hebrew  thought  into  the  dazzling 
dream  of  a  universal  "  kingdom  of  heaven,"  de- 
signed to  succeed  the  great  empires  of  antiquity 
and  to  embrace  in  its  dominions  all  the  nations 
of  the  globe.  The  so-called  Jewish  Apocalyptic 
literature,  which  sprang  up  as  a  transformation  of 
the  primitive  prophetism,  and  of  which  the  most 
important  writings  are  the  book  of  Daniel,  the 
Sibylline  oracles,  the  book  of  Enoch,  and  the  fourth 
book  of  Esdras,  enables  us  to  distinguish  successive 
stages  in  the  formation  of  the  Messianic  faith.  At 
first  an  aristocracy  of  the  saints  rather  than  the 
monarchy  of  the  Messiah,  the  conception  of  the 
"  kingdom  of  heaven "  incorporated  into  itself 
more  and  more  of  the  personal  element,  until  this 
at  last  came  to  predominate.  Long  before  the 
birth  of  Jesus,  the  chief  features  of  the  Messianic 
idea  as  contained  in  the  New  Testament  were 
strongly  marked,  both  with  regard  to  the  "  end  of 
the  world  "  and  the  "  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man." 
The  same  place,  Jerusalem ;  the  same  time,  the 
immediate  future ;  the  same  symptomatic  signs, 


GENIUS    OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.          241 

wars  and  rumors  of  wars,  and  the  gathering  of 
Gentile  armies  against  Jerusalem  ;  the  same  com- 
ing of  the  Messiah  with  his  angels  on  the  clouds  of 
heaven ;  the  same  solemn  Judgment,  with  the  Son 
of  Man  on  the  throne  of  his  glory  and  all  nations 
before  his  tribunal ;  the  same  sentences  to  the 
wicked  and  the  righteous;  the  same  resurrection 
of  the  dead  from  Hades ;  the  same  passing  away 
of  the  old  earth  and  appearance  of  the  new ;  —  all 
these,  and  more,  were  definite  Messianic  beliefs  in 
the  century  before  Jesus.  Nor  this  alone.  The 
"  kingdom  of  heaven,"  as  conceived  in  the  later 
of  these  Apocalyptic  writings,  was  highly  spiritual 
in  its  character,  bringing  at  once  happiness  and 
holiness  to  all  mankind.  The  "  kingdom  of 
heaven  "  was  to  ultimate  in  a  universal  brother- 
hood of  man,  an  era  of  universal  peace  and  right- 
eousness, introduced  through  universal  submission 
to  the  Hebrew  Messiah  or  Christ.  Every  generous 
aspiration  for  spiritual  perfection  and  the  welfare 
of  humanity  thus  found  its  satisfaction  in  the  vision 
of  Messianic  redemption  to  the  chosen  people  of 
God. 

THE  EDUCATION  AND   CAREER  OF  JESUS. 

Into  this  circle  of  ideas  and  national  aspirations 
Jesus  was  born  ;  and  were  they  not  also  his  own  ? 
They  were  the  very  atmosphere  he  breathed;  they 
filled  his  soul  from  the  earliest  days  of  childhood. 
The  gospels  represent  him  as  not  wholly  illiterate, 
being  able  at  least  to  read.  He  undoubtedly  was 

16 


242     FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

ignorant  of  Greek,  which  even  at  Jerusalem  was 
but  little  known  and  regarded  as  dangerous  in  its 
tendencies ;  and  there  is  no  trace  in  the  gospel 
narratives  of  the  influence  of  the  Hellenic  culture 
upon  his  mind.  The  study  of  the  Mosaic  Law 
was  alone  considered  reputable  and  safe  by  de- 
vout Jews.  The  Rabbi  Hillel,  however,  who  fifty 
years  before  Jesus  anticipated  his  Golden  Rule  and 
others  of  his  finest  sayings,  in  all  probability  ex- 
erted a  deep  influence  upon  his  development.  It 
is  evident  from  the  evangelists  that  Jesus  had  ear- 
nestly pondered  the  Old  Testament,  especially 
Isaiah  and  the  book  of  Daniel,  —  perhaps  the  book 
of  Enoch  also,  and  other  Apocalyptic  writings. 
"  The  advent  of  the  Messiah,"  says  Renan,  "  with 
his  glories  and  his  terrors,  the  nations  dashing  one 
against  another,  the  cataclysm  of  heaven  and  earth, 
were  the  familiar  food  of  his  imagination  ;  and  as 
these  revolutions  were  thought  to  be  at  hand,  so 
that  a  multitude  of  people  were  seeking  to  com- 
pute their  times,  the  supernatural  order  of  things 
into  which  such  visions  transport  us  appeared  to 
him  from  the  first  perfectly  natural."  The  con- 
ception of  universal  and  invariable  laws  of  nature 
which  had  been  developed  to  a  considerable  degree 
in  the  Greek  mind  by  the  philosophy  of  Epicurus, 
and  which,  nearly  a  century  before  the  birth  of 
Jesus,  had  been  admirably  stated  by  Lucretius  in 
his  great  poem  on  "  The  Nature  of  Things,"  was 
utterly  foreign  to  the  thought  of  Jesus  and  his 
countrymen,  who  believed  in  the  habitual  agency 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.          243 

of  demons  and  evil  spirits,  and  had  unwavering 
faith  in  miracles.  The  great  idea  of  Jesus,  the 
immediate  advent  of  the  "  kingdom  of  heaven," 
was  also  the  dominant  idea  of  his  times ;  but, 
various  attempts  to  realize  it  by  political  means 
having  ended  in  utter  failure,  especially  that  of 
Judas  the  Gaulonite  or  Galilean,  he  early  perceived 
the  folly  of  military  Messianism,  and  relied  implic- 
itly on  the  establishment  of  his  Messianic  throne 
by  the  miraculous  display  of  the  divine  power. 
Thus  was  Jesus  educated  by  his  age. 

Repelled  though  he  was  by  the  vulgar  concep- 
tion of  the  Christ  as  a  mere  warlike  prince,  the 
idea  of  spiritual  supremacy  through  the  religious 
reformation  of  his  people  struck  a  responsive  chord 
in  his  soul.  His  deep  nature  was  thrilled  and 
kindled  by  his  country's  hope,  and  with  intense 
earnestness  must  he  have  asked  himself,  — "  Can  I 
fulfil  it  ?  Am  I  the  Called,  the  Anointed  of  God? " 
The  consciousness  of  his  wonderful  religious  gen- 
ius, fertilized  and  developed  by  the  spirit  of  his 
age,  fanned  the  wish  into  a  prayer,  and  the  prayer 
iirto  a  conviction,  and  the  conviction  into  an  en- 
thusiasm, and  the  enthusiasm  into  a  calm  and 
omnipotent  faith,  that  he  was  indeed  the  Mes- 
siah, —  singled  out  from  all  eternity  by  the  will  of 
God,  foretold  by  prophets  and  kings,  and  awaited 
for  weary  centuries  by  humanity  in  tears.  Impos- 
sible as  it  is  for  the  cool  intellect  of  the  West  to 
comprehend  the  mystic  fervor,  the  religious  inten- 
sity of  the  Semitic  race,  it  is  yet  evident  that 


244      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Jesus  acquired  faith  in  his  Messianic  destiny  by 
an  inward  experience  analogous  to  that  which 
convinced  the  prophets  of  their  divine  missions. 
Fathom  it  or  analyze  it  we  cannot ;  but  we  can 
yet  perceive  that  the  phenomenon  of  Hebrew 
prophetism,  with  its  sublime  identification  of  im- 
passioned thought  with  the  direct  mandate  of 
God,  repeats  itself  in  the  history  of  the  young 
Galilean  carpenter.  It  is  a  fact  to  be  studied,  — 
not  to  be  denied. 

Let  no  one  meet  me  here  with  the  bigot's  worn- 
out  dilemma  —  "  If  Jesus  was  not  in  reality  the 
Messiah  lie  claimed  to  be,  he  was  either  a  madman 
or  an  impostor !  "  Was  John  Brown  a  madman  or 
an  impostor,  when  he  aspired  to  be  the  redeemer 
of  an  enslaved  race?  The  moral  sublimity  of  such 
an  aim  is  not  to  be  measured  by  the  six-inch  rule 
of  vulgar  souls,  but  by  the  astronomic  spaces  of 
the  heavens  above.  There  is  a  madness  that  is 
more  than  sanity,  —  a  veritable  inspiration  to  dare 
the  impossible,  and  by  bloody  failure  to  achieve  a 
somewhat  greater  than  "  success."  The  hero  is 
always  a  fool  in  the  eyes  of  him  who  counts  the 
cost.  If  it  be  madness  to  obey  the  enthusiasm 
of  ideas  without  stopping  to  count  the  cost,  God 
grant  us  all  the  wisdom  to  go  mad !  Such  mad- 
ness is  the  glory  of  humanity.  The  insane  man  is 
he  whose  thought  fatally  contradicts  his  surround- 
ings; but  he  who  comprehends  the  profoundest, 
though  it  may  be  the  unconscious,  movement  of 
his  age,  and  carries  its  underlying  ideas  into  fuller 


GENIUS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.         245 

and  higher  development,  —  this  man,  I  say,  is  the 
sanest  of  the  sane.  To  his  contemporaries,  the 
idealist  is  always  crazy ;  to  posterity,  he  appears 
as  the  only  practical  man  of  his  times,  —  the  guide 
of  his  generation  in  the  pathway  of  progress.  In 
the  soul  of  Jesus,  the  great  aspiration  of  the  He- 
brew race  became  purified  from  its  alloys,  and 
stamped  for  ever  with  the  impress  of  his  superior 
spirit.  But,  being  essentially  Hebrew  still,  it  is 
incapable  of  expansion  into  the  aspiration  of  uni- 
versal humanity ;  and  Jesus,  though  endowed  with 
that  sanity  of  genius  which  is  madness  in  the  eyes 
of  mediocrity,  is  no  longer  in  the  van. 

To  him,  however,  who,  hi  face  of  sincerity  like 
that  of  Jesus,  ventures  to  whisper  the  word  impost- 
ure, I  will  not  do  insult  to  my  own  reverence  for 
human  greatness  by  addressing  any  defence  of 
Jesus  from  such  a  charge.  It  should  blister  the 
mouth  that  makes  it.  Enough  for  me  that  in  the 
privacy  of  his  own  self-communings  Jesus  believed 
he  heard  the  summons  to  a  work  of  unparal- 
leled sublimity,  —  that  he  valued  not  his  blood  in 
comparison  with  obedience,  —  that  he  claimed  the 
Messianic  diadem  with  death  for  its  Koh-i-noor. 
Surely,  the  suspicion  of  duplicity  as  the  root  of 
such  vast  historic  influence  betrays  in  the  suspecter 
a  disgraceful  faith  in  the  power  of  knavery. 

The  transcendent  greatness  of  Jesus  appeared  in 
this,  that  the  popular  hope  of  a  Priest-King  ruling 
by  the  sword  transformed  itself  in  his  musing  soul 
into  the  sublime  idea  of  a  spiritual  Christ  ruling  by 


246  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

love,  —  that  he  sought  to  establish  the  "  kingdom 
of  heaven,"  not  over  the  bodies,  but  deep  in  the 
hearts,  of  men.  So  pure  and  piercing  was  his 
spiritual  insight,  that,  once  possessed  with  the 
Messianic  idea,  he  entered  into  the  best  that  was 
in  it,  and  forgot  the  rest ;  seized  on  the  elder  and 
diviner  meaning  of  the  prophets,  and  cast  away  as 
rubbish  the  popular  selfishness  with  which  this  was 
overlaid.  Believing  himself  to  be  the  Anointed 
of  God,  he  aspired  to  become,  not  merely  king  of 
the  Jewish  theocracy  after  its  miraculous  restora- 
tion by  God  at  the  great  "  day  of  judgment,"  but 
also  king  of  the  very  heart  of  regenerated  human- 
ity. I  would  fain  put  upon  this  ambition  the 
noblest  possible  construction ;  for,  so  far  from 
wishing  to  make  out  a  case  against  him,  I  am  only 
anxious  to  do  him  exact  justice,  and  penetrate  the 
spirit  of  the  faith  which  he  bequeathed  to  man- 
kind. To  become  the  object  of  human  imitation 
and  the  quickening  ideal  of  human  aspiration,  —  to 
be  the  One  Way  to  purity  and  love  and  peace,  — 
to  reign  in  men's  souls,  as  the  sun  reigns  in  the 
solar  system,  by  developing  the  seeds  of  all  good- 
ness and  beauty ;  —  this,  and  no  selfish  empire,  was 
the  ambition  of  Jesus.  He  aimed  to  be  Lord  and 
King  by  drawing  all  men  to  God,  and  thus  to 
make  himself  the  grea^;  centre  of  the  world's  divin- 
est  life.  To  reconcile  his  supreme  self-emphasis 
with  his  supreme  self-sacrifice,  is  the  great  per- 
plexing problem,  of  the  gospels.  The  doct  rine  of 
his  Deity,  which  is  the  orthodox  solution,  is  not  a 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,  ETC.         247 

possible   one   to   humanitarian   thinkers.      Where 
shall  we  find  another  ? 

THE   ORIGINALITY  OF  JESUS. 

On  the  one  hand,  the  claim  of  Jesus  to  the  Mes- 
sianic crown  did  not  grow  out  of  a  vulgar  lust  of 
power,  but  out  of  a  profound  faith  that  it  was 
God's  will  that  he  should  wear  it.  Belief  in  the 
"  divine  right  of  kings  "  was  universal  in  the  Jew- 
ish world,  and  Jesus  fully  shared  it.  How  it 
happened  that  he  first  ^became  convinced  of  his 
own  divine  election  to  the  throne  of  the  "  kingdom 
of  heaven,"  will  never,  I  think,  be  explained ;  that 
is  a  secret,  buried  with  him.  But  that  he  did 
become  convinced  of  it,  and  that  this  profound 
conviction,  rather  than  any  desire  of  personal  ag- 
grandizement, was  the  root  of  his  Messianic  claim, 
seems  to  me  the  simple  verdict  of  justice.  His 
self-emphasis,  therefore,  was  the  necessary  product 
of  his  education,  his  spiritual  experience,  and  his 
faith  in  God ;  and  in  the  necessity  of  this  connec- 
tion between  cause  and  effect  lies  his  defence 
against  the  charge  of  overweening  and  selfish 
egotism.  But  there  was  nothing  original  in  this 
conviction  of  a  special  Divine  mission ;  every 
founder  of  a  religion  shares  it.  The  true  origi- 
nality of  Jesus  lies,  I  conceive,  in  the  means  he 
adopted  to  accomplish  his  end  and  realize  his  am- 
bition. Here  he  stands  alone.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem,  he  aimed  to  win  absolute  power  by  abso- 
lutely renouncing  it.  This  is  the  identification  of 


248  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

contradictories,  —  the  very  Hegelianism  of  con- 
science. With  a  new  conception  of  what  consti- 
tutes true  royalty  of  soul,  he  sought  to  earn  his 
kingship  by  the  more  than  regal  majesty  of  his 
service.  The  "great  Masters"  have  been  rare  in- 
deed ;  yet  how  much  rarer  have  been  the  great 
Servants !  It  is  the  grandest  and  most  original 
trait  in  Jesus'  character,  that  he  sought  to  realize 
his  supreme  Mastership  through  a  supreme  Ser- 
vantship.  Here  lies  the  reconciliation  of  his  self- 
emphasis  and  self-renunci,ation.  Here  also  I  find 
the  secret  of  his  wonderful  success  in  subduing 
souls  to  his  sway.  He  would  govern,  yet  through 
love ;  he  would  secure  absolute  allegiance,  yet 
bind  men  to  it  by  the  spontaneous  outgush  of  their 
own  gratitude  ;  he  would  wear  a  crown,  yet  bow 
his  head  to  receive  it  from  the  hands  of  subjects 
burning  with  eagerness  to  place  it  there.  Thus, 
and  thus  alone,  he  aspired  to  reign,  the  welcome 
Sovereign  of  every  human  soul. 

What  astounding,  yet  sublime,  audacity !  How 
mean,  compared  with  this,  the  ambitions  of  Alex- 
anders and  Caesars  and  Napoleons  I  How  brutal 
is  the  ambition  that  relies  on  force,  compared  with 
the  ambition  that  relies  on  love  I  Yet,  because  it 
involved  his  own  elevation  to  a  throne,  albeit  a 
spiritual  throne,  his  ambition  was  ambition  still, 
the  "last  infirmity"  of  a  most  noble  mind.  It 
precluded  the  possibility  of  self-forgetfulness  in 
service,  —  of  that  supreme  modesty  which  teaches 
that  the  value  of  the  grandest  soul  is  not  personal, 


GENIUS  OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.          249 

but  inheres  in  the  universal  humanity  it  contains 
and  the  universal  ideas  it  represents.  There  is  but 
one  ambition  sublimer  than  to  REIGN  BY  SERV- 
ING, —  and  that  is,  to  SERVE  WITHOUT  REIGNING. 
I  cannot  shut  my  eyes  to  the  nobler  purpose  ;  I 
cannot  forget  that  Socrates  both  lived  and  died  to 
make  it  real. 

THE  RADICAL  DEFECT  OF   CHRISTIANITY. 

In  vain  is  all  the  modern  noise  and  bustle  about 
a  "  Liberal "  Christianity.  Christianity  is  based 
on  forge tfulness  of  liberty ;  the  love  of  perfect 
freedom  is  not  in  it.  Spiritual  servitude  is  its 
corner-stone,  —  none  the  less  hurtful,  if  voluntary. 
Many  a  slave  has  loved  his  chains.  Interpret  as 
loosely  as  you  may  the  Lordship  which  Jesus 
claimed,  —  it  is  no  Lordship  at  all,  if  it  leaves  the 
soul  supreme  Lord  over  itself.  Run  down  the 
scale  from  slavish  imitation  to  simple  deference, — 
it  avails  nought ;  there  is  no  spiritual  freedom  but 
in  reverence  for  the  still,  small  voice  within  the 
soul  as  supreme  above  all  other  voices.  This  made 
the  greatness  of  Jesus  himself;  would  that  he  had 
fostered  it  in  his  disciples !  Yet  no !  Even  the 
mistakes  of  lofty  spirits  help  on  the  great  cause  of 
human  development;  and,  mistaken  as  was  the 
Messianic  ambition  of  Jesus,  the  world's  debt  is 
immense  to  this  magnificent  mistake.  Mankind 
were  not  yet  ripe  for  self-government  in  spiritual 
freedom,  —  are  not  wholly  ripe  for  it  to-day,  —  will 
not  be  wholly  ripe  for  it  this  many  a  long  year.  The 


250  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

overpowering  influence  of  a  spiritual  King  whose 
law  was  love  met  the  worlds  wants  as  the  freedom 
of  self-government  could  not  then  have  done ;  and 
thus  the  gospel  of  authority  accomplished  a  work 
not  yet  possible  to  the  modern  gospel  of  spiritual 
liberty.  The  grave  responsibilities  of  independence 
befit  only  the  ripe  maturity  of  the  soul. 

Whether  we  consider  Christianity  with  regard 
to  its  essence,  its  origin,  or  its  history,  we  are  thus 
led  to  one  and  the  same  conclusion,  —  that  its  fun- 
damental characteristic  as  a  distinct  religion  is  its 
faith  in  Jesus  as  the  Christ.  Faith  in  a  Christ  or 
Messiah  as  "  the  coming  man  "  had  become,  long 
prior  to  the  birth  of  Jesus,  an  integral  part  of 
Hebrew  monotheism  ;  and  Christianity,  historically 
considered,  is  only  the  complete  development  of 
Judaism  into  its  highest  possibilities.  "  In  its 
earliest  aspect,"  s&ys  Martineau,  "Christianity 
was  no  new  or  universal  religion ;  Judaism  had 
found  the  person  of  its  Messiah,  but  else  remained 
the  same."  All  of  high  truth  jand  spiritual  power 
that  are  compatible  with  the  Messianic  idea,  Jesus, 
I  believe,  put  into  it,  when  he  made  it  the  corner- 
stone of  his  religion.  The  Christian  Church  has 
expressed  outwardly  the  genuine  character  of 
Messianism,  and  realized,  both  in  their  best  and  in 
their  worst  directions,  its  necessary  historical  ten- 
dencies. Gradually  developing  until  the  Papacy 
reached  the  zenith  of  its  prosperity,  and  gradually 
decaying  from  that  day  to  this,  Christianity  be- 
comes daily  more  and  more  discordant  with  modern 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,  ETC.          251 

civilization  and  modern  religion;  and  those  sects 
that  dream  of  adapting  it  to  modern  life  are  un- 
consciously officiating  at  its  funeral.  Construe  it 
as  largely  or  as  loosely  as  you  please,  Christianity, 
as  a  great  historical  and  spiritual  power,  will 
nevertheless  remain  religion  within  the  limits  of  the 
Messianic  idea.  Idealize  or  transcendentalize  the 
Christ  as  highly  as  you  may,  his  practical  power  is 
gone  the  moment  you  make  him  aught  less  than  a 
person.  It  is  the  vitality  of  Jesus  that  has  made, 
and  still  makes,  the  vitality  of  his  religion.  Pass 
beyond  the  circle  of  its  supreme  influence,  arid, 
whether  you  know  it  or  not,  you  have  passed  out- 
side of  Christianity.  Detach  Christianity  wholly 
from  the  person  of  Jesus,  and  you  destroy  all 
meaning  in  the  Christian  name  by  destroying  the 
historic  root  from  which  it  sprang.  The  Christian 
Confession  remains  the  boundary  line  which  no 
Christian  can  overstep. 

However  some  may  yearn,  having  lost  all  faith 
in  the  Messianic  idea,  to  retain  nevertheless  the 
Christian  name,  whether  from  love  for  its  vener- 
able associations  or  from  reluctance  to  bear  the 
odium  of  its  distinct  rejection.  I  believe  that  the 
proprieties  of  language  and  increasing  perception 
of  what  consistency  requires  will  slowly  wean 
them  from  this  desire.  The  world  at  large  can 
never  be  made  to  understand  what  is  meant  by  a 
Christian  who  in  no  sense  has  faith  in  the  Christ. 
If  Jesus  really  claimed  to  be  the  Christ,  —  if  he 
made  this  claim  the  basis  of  the  Christian  religion, — 


252      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

and  if  through  this  claim  he  still  infuses  into  his 
Church  all  its  Christian  life,  —  then  the  world  is 
right,  and  may  well  marvel  at  a  Christianity  that 
denies  the  Lord,  yet  wears  his  livery.  For  myself, 
I  cannot  evade  the  practical  consequences  of  my 
thought.  The  central  doctrine  of  Christianity  is 
for  me  no  longer  true  ;  its  essential  spirit  and 
faith  are  no  longer  the  highest  or  'the  best ;  and 
with  the  reality,  I  resign  the  name.  Far  be  it 
from  me  to  do  this  in  levity  or  mockery  or  de- 
fiance !  Far  be  it  from  me  to  turn  my  back  in 
scorn  on  my  own  most  hallowed  experiences  in  the 
past !  Once  I  felt  the  full  power  of  the  Christian 
faith ;  now  I  cleave  to  a  faith  diviner  still.  If  I 
am  in  fatal  error,  and  rush  madly  into  the  woes 
denounced  against  the  Anti-Christ,  even  so  must 
it  be ;  but  come  what  may,  let  me  never  plunge 
into  the  deeper  damnation  of  moral  faithlessness, 
or  make  my  heart  the  coffin  of  a  murdered  truth  ! 

THE   HIGHER   FAITH. 

If,  then,  there  is  a  higher  faith  than  Christianity, 
he  who  shall  cherish  it  is  bound  to  make  known 
what  it  is,  and  how  it  is  higher  than  Christianity. 
Bear  with  me  while  I  endeavor  to  discharge  this 
duty.  It  is  no  easy  thing  to  do.  Free  Religion, 
the  higher  faith  I  hold,  has  no  history,  save  the 
history  of  the  human  spirit,  striving  to  work  out 
its  destiny  in  freedom.  It  is  spiritual,  not  histori- 
cal, —  universal,  not  special,  —  inward,  not  out- 
ward. It  has  no  list  of  doctrines  to  teach,  no 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.         253 

Church  to  extend,  no  rites  to  perform,  no  Bible  to 
expound,  no  Christ  to  obey.  With  none  of  these 
things,  it  is  the  soul's  deep  resolve  to  love  the 
truth,  to  learn  the  truth,  and  to  live  the  truth,  un- 
coerc^d  and  free.  It  is  Intellect  daring  to  think, 
unawed  by  public  opinion.  It  is  Conscience  dar- 
ing to  assert  a  higher  law,  in  face  of  a  corrupted 
society  and  a  conforming  church.  It  is  Will  set- 
ting at  naught  the  world's  tyrannies,  and  putting 
into  action  the  private  whispers  of  the  still,  small 
voice.  It  is  Heart  resting  in  the  universal  and 
changeless  Law  as  eternal  and  transcendent  Love. 
It  is  the  soul  of  man  asserting  its  own  superiority 
to  all  its  own  creations,  burning  with  deep  devo- 
tion to  the  true  and  just  and  pure,  and  identifying 
its  every  wish  with  the  perfect  order  of  the  uni- 
verse. It  is  neither  affirmation  nor  negation  of 
the  established,  but  rather  a  deep  consciousness 
that  all  the  established  is  inferior  to  that  which 
has  established  it.  It  is  the  spirit  of  self-conscious 
freedom,  aiming  evermore  at  the  best,  and  trusting 
itself  as  the  architect  of  character.  In  fine,  it  is 
that  sense  of  spiritual  unity  with  boundless  Being 
which  fills  the  soul  with  reverence  for  human  nat- 
ure, and  disables  it  from  worshipping  aught  but 
the  formless,  indwelling,  and  omnipresent  One. 

But  the  difference  between  Christianity  and 
Free  Religion  will  best  be  made  evident  by  a  direct 
comparison  between  the  two,  with  respect  to  their 
leading  characteristics.  This  will  show  that  by 
the  intrinsic  truth  or  falsity  of  the  Christian  Con- 


254  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

fession,  that  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  Christ  of 
God,"  Christianity  must  stand  or  fall.  Let  the 
issue  be  met  fairly  and  squarely.  The  heart  of 
the  great  controversy  which  is  now  shaking  the 
world  to  its  profoundest  depths  can  be  found 
nowhere,  in  the  last  analysis,  but  in  this  question 
of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  Christian  Confession. 
Here  lies  the  battle-ground  between  freedom  and 
authority,  the  vast  Christian  Church  and  the  spirit 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  great  historical  faith 
of  the  Old  World  and  the  genius  of  American 
liberty,  —  in  one  word,  between  Christianity  and 
Free  Religion.  The  time  has  come  to  see  and  to 
say  that  the  Christian  Confession  is  not  a  truth. 
Jesus  was  not  the  "Christ  of  God"  The  "  Christ" 
prophesied  and  longed  for  has  never  come,  and  will 

never  come.    The  office  and  function  is  a  mvthical, 

j        t  ' 

an  impossible  one.  No  individual  man  has  ever 
stood,  or  can  ever  stand,  in  the  relation  of  Lord, 
King,  and  Saviour  to  the  whole  world.  It  would 
be  an  infinite  usurpation  for  any  man  to  occupy 
that  office,  either  in  a  temporal  or  spiritual  sense. 
A  comparison  between  the  Christian  idea  as  it  has 
always  been  and  must  ever  remain,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  ideas  which  are  now  asserting  em- 
inent domain  over  the  development  of  humanity, 
on  the  other  hand,  will  show  that  this  issue  be- 
tween Christianity  and  Free  Religion  is  an  abso- 
lute and  irreconcilable  one,  and  that  the  former  is 
doomed  by  the  very  nature  of  things  to  fade  away 
and  make  room  for  the  latter. 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,    ETC.        255 


THE    TWO    COKNER-STONES. 

The  corner-stone  of  Christianity  is  the  Christ 
himself,  believed  to  have  actually  come  in  the  flesh 
as  the  Divinely  appointed  Saviour  of  the  world, 
the  one  "  Life,  Truth,  and  Way."  His  mission 
is  unique,  not  to  be  accounted  for  by  historical 
causes,  but  only  by  a  special  miraculous  influx  of 
Divine  Power  into  the  course  of  history.  How- 
ever this  conception  is  refined  and  subtilized  by 
the  more  thoughtful  minds  in  the  Christian  Church, 
Jesus  remains  still,  in  the  religion  it  teaches,  the 
one  Vine  of  which  all  his  followers  are  merely 
branches. 

But  the  corner-stone  of  Free  Religion  is  the 
universal  soul  of  man,  the  common  nature  of 
humanity,  as  the  source  and  origin  of  the  world's 
religious  life.  Out  of  this  have  sprung,  in  accord- 
ance with  unchanging  spiritual  laws,  all  churches, 
faiths,  and  religions.  Nothing  less  than  the  entire 
history  of  humanity  can  reveal  all  its  possibilities ; 
and  through  its  own  inherent  possibilities  alone 
can  the  world  ever  be  "  saved''  from  its  own  mis- 
eries and  imperfections.  The  spontaneous  energies 
of  human  nature,  which  is  the  great  fountain-head 
of  all  history,  all  civilization,  all  religion,  are  the 
power  of  God  gushing  up  and  revealing  in  each 
soul  afresh  the  Infinite  Life  that  fills  all  space  and 
time.  It  is  faith  in  these  human  yet  divine  spon- 
taneities, wherever  and  whenever  and  however 
manifested,  that  inspires  the  free  soul  to  its  high- 


256  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

est  life,  and  bids  it  realize  its  own  inborn  ideal  as 
the  consummation  of  its  noblest  possibilities.  Faith 
in  the  individual  Jesus,  —  faith  in  universal  human 
nature  :  these  are  the  two  corner-stones. 


THE   TWO  FELLOWSHIPS. 

As  is  the  basis  of  faith,  so  is  the  fellowship  built 
upon  it.  The  Christian  fellowship  is  as  wide  as 
all  Christians,  but  no  wider.  Those  are  Chris- 
tian brethren  who  acknowledge  the  same  common 
Lord,  and  thus  drink  at  the  same  general  foun- 
tain of  Christian  life.  It  was  their  love  for  each 
other  that  made  the  ancients  marvel  at  the  early 
Christians ;  and  they  who  forget  this  limitation  of 
their  love  fail  to  understand  the  spirit  of  the  prim- 
itive Church  as  impressed  on  the  New  Testament. 
From  that  day  to  this,  the  same  limitation  of  fel- 
lowship has  existed  ;  and  so  long  as  the  Christian 
Church  continues  to  survive,  its  organic  bond  of 
union  must  still  be  the  original  Christian  Con- 
fession. 

But  the  fellowship  of  Free  Religion  is  as  wide 
as  humanity  itself.  All  who  are  born  of  woman 
are  brothers  and  peers  in  virtue  of  their  common 
nature.  There  is  no  right  of  spiritual  primogen- 
iture, no  monopoly  of  inspiration,  no  precedence 
of  creed ;  all  men  are  but  seekers  after  truth,  and 
despite  all  pretensions  and  delusions  they  reach  it 
only  by  using  the  natural  faculties  of  the  mind. 
The  impartial  God  sends  his  sunshine  and  his  rain 


GENIUS   OF   CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.         257 

to  all.     There  is  no  privileged  or  commissioned 
interpreter  of  Divine  oracles. 

"  Now  there  bubbled  beside  them,  where  they  stood, 
A  fountain  of  waters  sweet  and  good ; 
The  youth  to  the  streamlet's  brink  drew  near, 
Saying, '  Ambrose,  thou  maker  of  creeds,  look  here  1 ' 
Six  vases  of  crystal  then  he  took, 
And  set  them  along  the  edge  of  the  brook. 

"  '  As  into  these  vases  the  water  I  pour, 
There  shall  one  hold  less,  another  more, 
And  the  water  unchanged  in  every  case 
Shall  put  on  the  figure  of  the  vase  : 
O  thou  who  wouldst  unity  make  through  strife, 
Canst  thou  fit  this  sign  to  the  Water  of  Life  ? ' " 

These  beautiful  lines  of  our  own  American  poet 
breathe  the  true  spirit  of  Free  Religion,  —  a  deep 
humility  in  the  presence  of  infinite  truth  which 
forbids  any  one  to  despise  another's  earnest  faith. 
How  all  dogmatic  arrogance  fades  away,  when 
reverence  for  our  own  souls  begets  an  equal  rev- 
erence for  the  souls  of  others !  It  is  out  of  this 
profound  sentiment  of  human  equality  in  respect 
to  all  spiritual  privileges  that  a  profound  regard 
for  all  other  human  equalities  is  born,  nor  do  I  see 
how  it  can  have  any  other  origin.  Yet  in  the  con- 
scious equality  of  all  human  rights,  whether  before 
God  or  man,  must  be  found  the  seed  of  all  univer- 
sal brotherhood  that  deserves  the  name.  These, 
then,  are  the  two  contrasted  fellowships,  —  the 
brotherhood  of  the  Christian  Church  limited  by 
the  Christian  Confession,  the  great  brotherhood  of 
man  without  limit  or  bound. 

17 


258  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

THE  TWO   SOCIAL  IDEALS. 

A  similar  contrast  meets  us  in  the  social  ideals 
held  up  as  the  great  end  of  collective  human  ac- 
tivity. The  supreme  object  of  the  Christian 
Church  is  to  christianize  the  world,  and  thus  secure 
the  salvation  of  ali  in  the  world  to  come.  That  is, 
its  efforts  are  all  directed  to  the  one  aim  of  bringing 
all  men  within  its  fold,  of  making  its  brotherhood 
universal  on  the  basis  of  the  Christian  Confession, 
of  absorbing  the  world  into  itself,  and  thus  includ- 
ing all  men  under  the  sceptre  of  its  Lord.  In  the 
prime  of  its  glory  the  mediaeval  Papacy  went  far 
towards  accomplishing  this  object ;  and,  although 
now  the  Christian  Church  is  shattered  into  frag- 
ments, each  separate  piece  or  "sect"  endeavors  to 
accomplish  it  anew.  "Church  Extension"  is  the 
primary  aim  of  all  denominations  as  such,  the 
evidence  and  measure  of  all  denominational  life. 
To  evangelize  or  christianize  the  world  is  the  ideal 
end  of  all  Christian  activity  of  a  social  kind  ;  and 
this  means  to  make  conterminous  with  the  globe 
that  "kingdom  of  heaven"  in  which  the  Christ  is 
the  Divinely  appointed  king. 

But  the  supreme  object  of  Free  Religion  is  to 
humanize  the  world.  That  is,  it  aims  to  liberate, 
to  educate,  to  spiritualize,  in  one  word,  to  develop 
the  race.  To  bring  out  of  man  the  best  that  is  in 
him,  —  the  best  in  thought,  in  feeling  and  senti- 
ment, in  moral  action,  in  social,  political,  and 
religious  life,  —  this  is  the  work  it  proposes. 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,  ETC.         259 

Whatever  inward  or  outward  conditions  favor 
this  symmetrical  development  of  human  nature, 
it  strives  unceasingly  to  secure ;  and  thus  all  high 
philanthropies  and  all  generous  reforms  and  all 
noble  endeavors  to  ameliorate  society  grow  out  of 
the  essential  purpose  and  dominant  idea  of  Free 
Religion.  Man  does  not  need  t%o  be  christianized : 
he  does  need  to  be  humanized.  While  thus  the 
social  ideal  of  the  Christian  Church  is  that  of  a 
"  kingdom  of  heaven  "  on  earth  with  the  Christ  for 
its  king,  the  social  ideal  of  Free  Religion  is  that  of 
a  Commonwealth  of  Man,  in  which  there  is  neither 
king  nor  lord,  but  all  are  free  and  equal  citizens. 

THE  TWO   SPIRITUAL   IDEALS. 

A  profounder  contrast  still  exists  between  the 
two  spiritual  ideals  held  up  to  the  private  soul. 
The  highest  possible  exhortation  of  Christianity 
is  — "Be  like  Christ;"  its  highest  eulogy  is  to 
say  —  "He  is  Christlike."  By  rigid  self-examina- 
tion and  laborious  imitation  to  model  the  character 
after  the  pattern  set  by  the  "  Great  Exemplar,"  is 
the  crowning  achievement  of  the  Christian  saint. 
The  little  work  of  Thomas  a  Kempis,  called  the 
"  Imitation  of  Christ,"  which  is  said  to  have  passed 
through  more  editions  than  any  other  book  except 
the  Bible  alone,  is  chiefly  a  devoutly  passionate 
outpouring  of  the  Christian  aspiration  to  attain 
the  character  of  Jesus.  Suppression  of  the  stub- 
born individuality  and  complete  reproduction  of 
the  Master's  likeness  is  the  spiritual  ideal  of  the 


260  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Christian  mystic  ;  and  the  heroes  of  Christian  his- 
tory are  precisely  those  who,  like  Fenelon  or  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi,  are  supposed  to  have  most  suc- 
cessfully imitated  it. 

But  the  highest  exhortation  of  Free  Religion  is 
—  "Be  thyself;"  its  highest  praise  —  "He  was 
true  to  himself,  and  therefore  true  to  humanity 
and  to  God."  It  recognizes  no  absolute  ideal  in 
Jesus ;  it  perceives  that,  even  were  it  possible 
(which  it  is  not),  the  successful  imitation  of  Jesus 
by  all  mankind  would  extinguish  individuality, 
make  original  and  independent  character  impos- 
sible, and  destroy  the  very  roots  of  all  civilization. 
It  proclaims  the  servility,  nay,  the  utter  irreligion, 
of  spiritual  imitation.  Tho  character  of  Jesus  ex- 
hibits but  one  out  of  an  infinite  number  of  spir- 
itual types,  and  could  be  an  ideal  to  no  one  but 
himself,  even  supposing  that  he  had  made  his  own 
ideal  identical  with  his  own  real.  The  law  of 
endless  variety  in  natural  temperaments  and  or- 
ganizations, and  in  the  relative  strength  of  ele- 
mentary faculties,  involves  another  law  of  endless 
variety  in  individual  ideals.  A  single  absolute 
ideal  for  all  mankind  would  be  an  appalling  curse, 
if  it  were  possible  to  hold  all  to  it.  Each  soul 
must  have  its  own  ideal  according  to  the  balance 
of  its  natural  capacities  and  powers,  the  nature  of 
its  surroundings  and  conditions  in  the  world,  and 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  its  being ;  and  as  the 
soul  grows  in  attainment,  so  must  its  ideal  ever- 
more enlarge.  It  is  supremely  mischievous  to  be 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.         261 

a  copyist  in  character.  Facsimiles  of  Jesus  are 
impossible  ;  good  imitations  of  him  are  excessively 
^rare  ;  caricatures  of  him  are  plentiful.  The  ideal 
of  another,  like  a  die  stolen  from  the  mint,  can  at 
the  best  make  me  only  a  counterfeit.  Hence  the 
highest  maxim  in  this  matter  is  simply  this  :  "  Be 
true  to  yourself."  Thus,  while  the  spiritual  ideal 
of  Christianity  is  to  sacrifice  all  individuality  in  the 
reproduction  of  the  character  of  Jesus,  the  spir- 
itual ideal  of  Free  Religion  is  to  develop  the  in- 
dividuality of  each  soul  in  the  highest,  fullest,  and 
most  independent  manner  possible. 

THE  TWO  ESSENTIAL  SPIRITS. 

But  the  profoundest  contrast  of  all  lies  in  the 
fundamental  unlikeness  of  spirit  and  tone.  The 
spirit  of  Christianity,  as  manifested  in  the  chief 
saints  of  Christian  history,  has  always  been  on  the 
one  hand  that  of  self-abnegation,  self-distrust,  self- 
contempt,  and  on  the  other  hand  that  of  utter 
spiritual  prostration  before  Jesus  and  utter  sub- 
mission to  his  authoritative  will.  To  be  absolutely 
obedient  to  the  Christ,  and  to  find  this  obedience 
made  easy  by  a  divine  passion  of  love  for  his  per- 
son and  his  character,  has  always  been  and  must 
always  be  the  governing,  secret  aspiration  of  every 
Christian  heart.  Whether  believed  to  be  the  incar- 
nate God  or  simply  the  one  Divinely  ordained  Way 
to  God,  the  supreme  motive  to  holy  living  has 
always  been,  in  the  deeply  devout  Christian,  ab- 
sorbing love  for  his  Saviour ;  and  this  love  always 


262  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

tends  to  produce  the  suppression  of  the  free  self, 
the  paralysis  and  humiliation  of  the  individual  will, 
in  order  that  the  will  of  the  Master  may  be  accom- 
plished in  heart  and  life.  Meekness,  patience, 
submission,  resignation,  passivity,  absence  of  self- 
will,  complete  surrender  of  the  whole  soul  to  a  will 
outside  of  itself,  —  these  are  the  especial  graces 
and  virtues  of  the  Christian  character,  and  deter- 
mine the  type  of  the  "  Christian  spirit." 

But  the  spirit  of  Free  Religion  is  fundamentally 
different.  The  same  self-consecration  to  God  which 
in  the  Christian  soul  produces  self-surrender  and 
self-humiliation,  produces  in  the  free  soul  self- 
reliance  and  self-respect.  God  in  Christ  is  God 
outside  of  self,  and  devotion  to  him  must  be  self- 
suppression.  But  God  in  Humanity  is  God  in  every 
soul ;  and  devotion  to  him  becomes  the  putting 
forth  of  every  energy  to  attain  freely  the  individ- 
ual ideal.  The  spirit  of  Free  Religion,  as  the  name 
imports,  is  the  spirit  of  freedom,  of  manly  and 
womanly  self-respect,  of  deep  religious  trust  in 
human  nature ;  and  because  its  faith  in  self  is  at 
bottom  faith  in  the  divineness  of  universal  Nature, 
it  is  the  perfect  blending  of  sturdy  self-reliance 
with  noble  humanity  and  devout  repose  in  God. 

THE   SUMMARY. 

Thus  from  a  thoughtful  and  independent  com- 
parison of  the  great  faith  of  the  past  and  the 
greater  faith  of  the  present,  it  becomes  clear,  I 
think,  that  there  is  a  deep  spiritual  antagonism 


GENIUS   OF  CHRISTIANITY,   ETC.          263 

between  them.  The  one  must  wane  as  the  other 
waxes.  The  one  must  die  that  the  other  may 
live.  God  in  Christ  is  the  spiritual  centre  of 
Christianity ;  hence  in  Christ  himself  must  Chris- 
tianity ever  have  its  basis  and  corner-stone,  -7-  in 
the  Christian  Confession  it  must  ever  have  its  bond 
and  limit  of  fellowship,  —  in  the  universal  exten- 
sion of  the  Christian  Church  it  must  ever  have  its 
social  ideal,  —  in  the  imitation  of  Jesus  it  must  ever 
have  its  spiritual  ideal,  —  in  the  suppression  of  self 
and  utter  submission  to  the  will  of  Jesus  it  must 
ever  manifest  its  essential  spirit.  But  G-od  in  Human- 
ity is  the  spiritual  and  central  faith  of  Free  Religion  ; 
which  has  thus  its  corner-stone  in  universal  human 
nature,  its  fellowship  in  the  great  brotherhood  of 
man,  its  social  ideal  in  a  free  republican  common- 
wealth, its  spiritual  ideal  in  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  each  individual  soul,  its  essential  spirit  in 
a  self-respect  which  is  at  once  profound  reverence 
for  human  nature  and  profound  repose  in  univer- 
sal Nature. 

Am  I  riot  right  in  calling  this  the  higher  and 
diviner  faith,  —  the  faith  of  manhood  as  contrasted 
with  that  of  childhood  ?  I  recognize  the  great 
services  rendered  to  man  by  the  Christian  Church  ; 
I  appreciate  the  peculiar  beauty  of  the  Christian 
character ;  I  know  the  mighty  power  of  the  Chris- 
tian spirit.  But  I  cannot  conceal  from  myself  that 
Christianity  is  not  adapted  to  the  present  as  it  has 
been  to  the  past,  and  that  a  deeper,  broader,  and 
higher  faith  is  to-day  silently  entering  the  heart  of 


264  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

humanity.  If,  out  of  all  the  sayings  attributed  to 
Jesus  in  the  New  Testament,  I  were  asked  to 
select  that  one  which  most  profoundly  utters  the 
spirit  of  his  religion,  I  should  select  these  beau- 
tiful, gracious,  and  tender  words  :  — 

"  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy- 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke 
upon  you,  and  learn  of  me ;  for  I  am  meek  and 
lowly  of  heart;  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls.  For  my  yoke  is  easy,  and  my  burden  is 
light." 

How  many  aching  hearts  and  wounded  spirits 
have  taken  upon  them  the  easy  yoke  of  Jesus, 
and  found  the  promised  rest!  And  how  many 
more  will  find  repose  and  peace  in  the  same  gentle 
bondage !  If  the  free  spirit  could  indeed  wear  a 
yoke,  —  if  it  could  indeed  purchase  rest  on  such 
terms  without  abjuring  that  spiritual  independence 
which  is  its  very  life  and  breath,  —  then  might  it 
wear  the  yoke  of  Jesus.  Once  I  rejoiced  to  wear 
it ;  but  I  can  wear  it  no  longer.  The  rest  I 
need  comes  no  longer  from  spiritual  servitude,  but 
must  be  sought  and  found  in  the  manly  exercise  of 
spiritual  freedom.  It  is  to  those  Avho  feel  this 
Anglo-Saxon  instinct  of  liberty  stirring  in  their 
hearts  that  my  words  are  addressed,  —  not  to  those 
who  feel  no  galling  pressure  from  the  easy  yoke. 
My  duty  is  discharged ;  my  task  is  done  ;  and,  as 
I  have  freely  spoken,  so  do  you  freely  judge  my 
words. 


THE   SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          265 


THE   SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM. 
BY  O.  B.  FROTHISTGHAM. 


subject  of  this  lecture  is  "  The  Soul  of 
-*•  Protestantism  ;  "  by  which  is  meant  the  es- 
sence of  Protestantism,  its  cardinal  idea  and  prin- 
ciple. This  is  not  so  simple  a  thing  to  get  at  as 
people  commonly  imagine.  They  who  think  they 
have  it  fast  locked  up  in  the  phrases,  "  an  open 
Bible,"  "freedom  of  conscience,"  "liberty  of  pri- 
vate judgment,"  "  spiritual  emancipation,"  or  other 
popular  motto,  are  gravely  mistaken.  Such  will 
probably  be  surprised  to  learn  that  some  of  the 
deepest  scholars  and  hardest  thinkers  of  Germany, 
where  the  Protestant  Reformation  began,  where  its 
genius  was  native,  and  its  spirit  should  be  most 
easily  caught,  have  written  bulky  books  to  show 
what  the  soul  of  Protestantism  was,  and  so  little 
agree  in  their  descriptions  of  it  that  their  chief 
strength  is  expended  in  correcting,  criticising,  and 
refuting  one  another.  A  glance  at  three  or  four 
learned  articles  by  first-rate  men,  in  the  "  Theolo- 
gische  Jahrbiicher,"  will  satisfy  the  incredulous 
of  the  extreme  difficulty  of  saying  precisely  what 
Protestantism  was  or  is. 

Men  protested  long  before  Martin  Luther  ;  but 
Protestantism,  as  a  solid  movement  in  Christendom, 


266  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

began  with  him.  It  was  no  new  thing  for  the 
Church  of  Rome  to  be  assailed.  Malcontents  had 
had  their  fling  at  her  for  two  hundred  years  and 
more.  Wycliffe  in  England,  Huss  and  Jerome  in 
Bohemia,  Savonarola  in  Italy,  had  said  their  say,  — 
paid  dearly  for  the  luxury,  to  be  sure,  but  spoken, 
nevertheless,  and  been  heard.  Eminent  men  in 
Catholic  universities  had  dealt  hard  blows  at  the 
papacy.  The  Church  was  used  to  complaint,  fault- 
finding, and  opposition  from  her  children.  She  felt 
secure  and  good-natured,  and  let  the  malcontents 
wrangle  on  and  devour  one  another.  The  great 
popes  sat  securely  on  their  throne,  suspecting  no 
new  danger.  The  patient  old  world  was  wonted 
to  their  ways.  The  cavillers  had  said  their  worst, 
and,  as  for  doing  any  thing,  the  power  was  not  in 
their  hands.  The  elegant  Leo  X.  accepted  from 
the  mighty  Julius  II.  the  duty  of  rebuilding  St. 
Peters  church.  Michael  Angelo  laid  before  him 
his  plan  of  hanging  the  dome  of  the  Pantheon 
three  hundred  feet  hi  the  air,  and  filling  in  the 
space  between  the  dome  and  the  earth  with  an 
architecture  that  should  do  justice  to  the  concep- 
tions of  his  colossal  brain.  The  imagination  of 
Leo  was  enchanted,  but  his  exchequer  was  low. 
Angelo.  was  not  a  cheap  builder.  Good  architect- 
ure was  never  cheap.  He  planned  for  no  earthly 
monarch,  but  for  the  Vicar  of  Christ,  who  was  sup- 
posed to  have  at  command  the  treasures  of  invisi- 
ble kingdoms.  For  such  building  even  the  Pope 
was  poor ;  the  Roman  State  was  poor.  The  rights 


THE  SOUL    OF  PROTESTANTISM.          267 

to  the  Church  in  France  had  been  sold  to  Francis 
I.,  but  the  price  paid  by  a  king  for  a  national 
church  left  but  a  scanty  allowance  for  the  celestial 
design.  Thirty  new  cardinals  were  created,  each 
at  a  handsome  sum.  Still  the  treasury  of  holiness 
was  empty.  The  terrestrial  sources  of  revenue 
being  exhausted,  the  celestial  remained.  Tetzel,  a 
Dominican  monk,  was  commissioned  to  offer  seats 
in  paradise  to  the  highest  bidder.  With  boundless 
impudence,  partly  constitutional,  partly  official, 
and  partly  the  result  of  confidence  in  the  bottom- 
less credulity  of  the  German  people,  he  offered  his 
goods  openly  in  churches,  public  squares  and  tav- 
erns, with  huge  parade.  The  market  was  fair, 
and  for  a  time  a  smart  traffic  went  on  to  the  great 
content  of  the  Dominican  order,  which  pocketed  a 
handsome  commission,  and  to  the  rapid  accumu- 
lation of  Peter's  pence.  But  as  the  goods  became 
shop-worn,  the  tradesman  had  to  fall  back  on  his 
eloquence,  which  was  of  the  auctioneer's  quality, 
not  refined;  he  insinuated,  he  ranted,  he  cried  up 
his  wares  in  the  most  approved  style  of  the  auction 
block,  peppered  and  sugared  his  lies,  drew  on  his 
fancy  for  inducements,  threw  sulphur  and  turpen- 
tine at  discretion  into  the  furnaces,  burnished  up 
his  tarnished  images  of  felicity,  increased  the  num- 
ber of  penalties  to  be  compounded  for,  swelled  the 
list  of  sins  to  a  ruinous  dimension,  multiplied  the 
candidates  for  perdition,  caught  people  figuratively 
by  the  hair  of  the  head,  held  them  over  the  pit, 
and,  when  they  writhed  and  screamed  in  terror, 


268  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

quietly  remarked,  "  Well,  the  door  of  escape  is 
open  ;  pay  the  price,  cash  down,  and  you  are  free." 

A  prospectus  of  these  public  sales,  signed  and 
guaranteed  by  the  Archbishop  of  Mentz,  whom 
the  Pope  had  made  superintendent  of  the  saintly 
lottery,  fell  under  the  eye  of  the  monk  Luther. 
He  was  struck  with  amazement,  but  not  dumb. 
A  remonstrance  to  his  own  Bishop  of  Brandenburg 
had  no  effect.  The  bishop  merely  advised  him 
to  hold  his  tongue,  or  he  might  get  himself  into 
trouble.  A  respectable  remonstrance  addressed  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Mentz,  accompanied  by  a  list  of 
propositions  which  he  offered  to  maintain  against 
Tetzel  and  his  practices,  brought  no  reply  ;  and  on 
the  31st  of  October,  1517,  the  indignant  monk 
nailed  a  copy  of  the  propositions  to  the  church 
door  of  Wittemberg  Castle.  The  propositions  are 
too  many  to  quote  here  in  full.  Here  are  a  few 
of  them :  — 

"  Christians  should  be  taught  that,  if  the  Pope 
were  made  acquainted  with  the  extortions  of  the 
indulgence  preachers,  he  would  prefer  seeing  the 
basilica  of  St.  Peter's  reduced  to  ashes  to  building 
it  with  the  flesh,,  fleece,  and  bones  of  his  sheep." 

"  The  Pope's  wish  must  be,  if  indulgences,  a 
small  matter,  are  proclaimed  with  the  ringing  of 
bell,  with  ceremonial  and  solemnity,  that  the  Gos- 
pel, so  great  a  matter,  should  be  preached  with  a 
hundred  bells,  a  hundred  ceremonials,  a  hundred 
solemnities." 

"  The  true  treasure  of  the  Church  is  the  sacro- 
sanct Gospel  of  the  glory  and  grace  of  God." 


THE  SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          269 

"  People  are  given  cause  to  hate  this  treasure  of 
the  Gospel,  by  which  the  first  became  last." 

"  People  are  given  cause  to  love  the  treasure  of 
indulgences,  by  which  the  last  became  first." 

"  The  treasures  of  the  Gospel  are  the  nets  by 
which  the  rich  were  once  fished  for." 

"  The  treasures  of  indulgences  are  the  nets  with 
which  men's  riches  are  now  fished  for." 

"  To  say  that  the  cross  placed  in  the  Pope's  arms 
is  equal  to  the  cross  of  Christ  is  blasphemy." 

"  Why  does  not  the  Pope,  out  of  his  most  holy 
charity,  empty  Purgatory,  in  which  are  so  many 
souls  in  punishment  ?  This  would  be  a  worthier 
exercise  of  his  power  than  freeing  souls  for  money, 
and  to  what  end  ?  To  build  a  church  !  " 

"  What  means  this  strange  compassion  on  the 
part  of  God  and  the  Pope,  who,  for  money's  sake, 
change  the  soul  of  the  impious,  of  God's  enemy, 
into  a  soul  pious  and  acceptable  to  the  Lord  ?  " 

"  Cannot  the  Pope,  whose  treasures,  at  the  pres- 
ent moment,  exceed  the  most  enormous  treasures, 
build  a  single  church  with  his  own  money,  without 
taking  that  of  the  faithful  poor  ?  " 

"  Christians  should  be  exhorted  to  follow  Christ, 
their  head,  through  pains,  punishments,  and  hell 
itself ;  so  that  they  ma}7  have  assurance  that  heaven 
is  entered  through  tribulations,  not  through  secu- 
rity and  peace." 

In  all  this  we  see  moral  indignation  blasting  hot, 
the  lava  stream  of  a  volcanic  heart,  —  nothing  more. 
But  more  soon  followed.  Straight  on  the  heels 


270      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

of  the  propositions  came  the  dogmatic  theses  and 
the  bold  sermon  in  the  vulgar  tongue  supporting 
them :  — 

"  Man  by  his  nature  cannot  will  that  God  be 
God.  He  would  rather  himself  be  God,  and  that 
God  were  not." 

"  It  is  false  that  appetite  is  free  to  choose  both 
ways  ;  it  is  not  free,  but  captive." 

"  There  exists  in  Nature,  before  God,  nothing 
save  unclean  desire." 

"  It  is  false  that  this  desire  can  be  regulated  by 
the  virtue  of  hope.  For  hope  is  opposed  to  charity, 
which  seeks  and  desires  only  what  is  of  God.  Hope 
conies  not  of  our  merits,  but  of  our  passions,  which 
efface  our  merits." 

"  The  best,  the  only  infallible  preparation  and 
disposition  for  the  reception  of  grace  are  the  choice 
and  predestination  of  God  from  all  eternity." 

"  It  is  false  that  invincible  ignorance  is  any  ex- 
tenuation. Ignorance  of  God,  of  one's  self,  of  good 
works,  is  the  invincible  nature  of  man." 

This  was  the  doctrinal  basis  on  which  the  pro- 
test of  conscience  rested.  The  people  leaped  upon 
it,  as  if  it  had  been  the  Rock  of  Ages.  A  thrill 
of  conviction  ran  through  them.  The  German 
mind  seemed  about  to  slide  off  in  a  mass  from  Italy. 
The  propositions  were  printed  by  myriads ;  like 
falling  leaves  scattered  by  the  wind,  they  lodged 
everywhere,  in  back-yard,  on  door-step  and  win- 
dow-sill. Luther  trembled  at  his  own  success. 
He  wrote  to  the  Pope :  "  Most  Holy  Father,  I 


THE  SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          271 

cast  myself  at  your  feet,  with  the  offer  of  myself 
and  all  that  is  in  me.  Pronounce  the  sentence  of 
life  or  death ;  call,  recall,  approve,  disapprove ;  I 
acknowledge  your  voice  to  be  the  voice  of  Christ, 
who  reigns  and  speaks  in  you."  He  protested  that 
he  advanced  no  heretical  doctrine. 

The  story  of  Luther's  battle  with  himself  and 
the  Pope  does  not  belong  here.  We  are  concerned 
with  Protestantism,  and  but  incidentally  with  its 
founder.  On  the  10th  of  December,  1520,  at  the 
ninth  hour  of  the  day,  at  the  east  gate  of  Wittern- 
berg,  near  the  holy  cross,  the  Pope's  bull  of  ex- 
communication, along  with  other  of  the  Pope's 
books,  was  publicly  burned.  By  that  act  the 
reformer  destroyed  his  ships,  and  strode  forward 
resolutely  to  his  life-battle,  while  Europe  entered 
on  the  career  of  controversy  which  soon  resulted 
in  blood. 

The  enthusiasm  of  all  classes  for  the  new  religion 
was  boundless.  "  Nobles  and  people,  castles  and 
free  towns,  rivalled  each  other  in  zeal  and  enthu- 
siasm for  Luther."  His  popular  tracts  were  de-  . 
voured  ;  the  sheets  wet  from  the  press  were  hurried 
to  the  shops  and  carried  off  at  almost  the  same 
instant.  The  printers  seemed  to  be  disciples  of  the 
reformer  to  a  man.  They  printed  with  the  great- 
est care,  and  sometimes  at  their  own  expense, 
writings  that  favored  his  cause,  while  the  Roman- 
ists found  difficulty  in  getting  any  thing  done,  had 
to  pay  dearly  for  it,  and  obtained  the  poorest  work 
even  then.  Not  a  few  monks  caught  the  fury  and 


272  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

became  colporteurs  for  Luther.  The  enemy  tried 
desperately  to  stem  the  tide,  by  sowing  dissensions 
among  the  German  principalities,  and  so  dividing- 
the  Protestant  strength ;  and  they  succeeded  so 
far  that,  in  1529,  the  German  Diet  took  measures 
to  check  the  movement.  Then  it  was  that  a  mi- 
nority of  the  delegates  remonstrated,  and,  remon- 
strance being  of  no  avail,  PROTESTED.  Hence  the 
name  PROTESTANTS.  So  much  of  external  history 
must  suffice. 

Now,  the  careful  thinker  asks  two  questions :  — 

I.  Against  what  was  the  protest  made  ? 

II.  In  the  name  of  what  was  the  protest  made  ? 
Against  what?     Against  the  right  of  a  majority 

to  dictate  to  a  minority  in  matters  of  faith  ;  against 
outward  compulsion  in  concerns  of  religion,  whether 
from  State  or  Church ;  against  spiritual  dominion 
of  all  kinds.  The  protesting  members  declared 
their  willingness  to  obey  the  emperor  in  all  fitting 
duty  till  death;  "but  these  are  matters  that  con- 
cern God's  honor  and  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  we 
are  bound  to  regard  Him  as  King  and  God,  King 
of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords ;  and,  being  so  bound, 
by  baptism  and  by  his  holy  word,  we  must  consult 
that  honor  and  that  salvation,  each  one  standing 
alone,  and  giving  account  of  himself.  Once  for  all 
they  declare  that  they  cannot  with  good  conscience 
obey  in  all  things  the  emperor,  since  they  should 
falsify  themselves  in  sight  of  God,  were  they  to  in- 
fluence any  of  high  or  low  degree  to  depart  from 
the  commandment  of  God's  holy  word,  and  bow  to 


TEE   SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          273 

a  lower  authority.  And  as  for  the  authority  of  the 
Church  to  interpret  God's  word,  it  would  be  time 
enough  to  speak  of  that  when  they  were  all  agreed 
on  which  was  the  true,  holy  Church  of  Christ. 
But  inasmuch  as  on  one  point  there  is  not  the 
least  controversy,  —  as  no  precept  is  plainer  than 
the  command  to  stand  fast  by  God's  word,  —  as 
the  holy  Scripture  is  clear  on  all  essential  points  to 
Christian  men,  —  we  are  minded,  God  helping  and 
instructing,  to  abide  by  it,  to  heed  what  is  con- 
tained in  the  holy  gospel  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  and  to  heed  nothing  else  ;  for,  in  thus 
observing  the  one  rule  of  truth,  and  conforming  to 
the  only  just  standard  of  doctrine  and  life,  no  one 
can  err  or  go  astray ;  whoever  builds  thereon  will 
prevail  against  the  gates  of  hell ;  but  they  that 
build  upon  human  edicts  must  come  to  naught." 

The  protest,  therefore,  was  against  every  kind  of 
outward  interference  in  matters  of  faith. 

In  what  name  was  the  protest  made  ?  In  the 
name  of  CONSCIENCE.  In  the  early  reform  litera- 
ture there  is  no  more  frequent  word  than  the  word 
"  conscience."  Luther  used  it  •repeatedly.  His 
followers  used  it;  it  occurs  many  times  in  the  ap- 
peal which  the  minority  made,  and  the  pith  of 
which  I  have  just  condensed.  But  what  did  these 
men  mean  by  conscience  ?  In  raising  this  question, 
we  touch  the  heart  of  our  subject.  The  soul  of 
Protestantism  iv  as  respect  for  conscience  as  the  kernel 
of  moral  personality.  That  was  the  seat  of  author- 
ity within,  as  the  Church  for  the  Romanists  was 

18 


274  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  seat  of  authority  without.  That  was  the  organ 
of  faith  as  the  Church  had  been  the  organ  of  faith  ; 
the  only  organ  there  was  to  oppose  to  the  Church. 
The  external  power  must  be  supplanted  by  an 
internal  power.  As  Rome  was  objective,  Protes- 
tantism must  be  subjective.  In  the  name  of  con- 
science, Savonarola  pronounced  Pope  Alexander  an 
atheist,  and  called  on  Catholic  Christendom  to 
depose  him ;  in  the  name  of  conscience,  Luther 
declared  Leo  a  blasphemer,  and  called  on  Christen- 
dom at  large  to  throw  off  his  yoke.  Both  reform- 
ers arrayed  conscience  against  the  hierarch}7"  which, 
combining  with  state-craft,  crushed  religion ;  but 
neither  arrayed  conscience  against  the  religion  thus 
abused.  Savonarola  called  himself  a  Catholic  of 
Catholics,  and  Luther  called  himself  a  Christian  of 
Christians.  Both  appealed  to  a  new  attestation 
of  faith ;  neither  detracted  from  the  substance  of 
faith.  It  was  to  save  the  substance  that  they  changed 
the  representation.  It  is,  at  least,  a  rhetorical  exag- 
geration to  say,  as  George  Bancroft  does :  "  Luther 
based  his  reform  upon  the  simple  but  sublime  truth 
which  lies  at  the- basis  of  morals,  —  the  paramount 
value  of  character  and  purity  of  conscience ;  the 
superiority  of  right  dispositions  over  ceremonial 
exactness."  Neither  Luther  nor  his  friends  took 
so  natural  a  view  of  justification  as  this. 

By  conscience  they  meant  what  we  mean  by  the 
44  Christian  consciousness,"  the  "  mind  of  Christ " 
that  had  been  imparted  by  grace  and  by  inherit- 
ance. Not  the  natural  conscience  ;  not  the  human 


THE   SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          275 

moral  sense ;  not  the  impulse,  or  the  persuasion,  or 
the  conviction  of  right ;  of  the  natural  conscience, 
as  of  other  things  natural,  Luther  had  the  most 
despicable  opinion.  The  function  of  the  natural 
conscience  was  simply  to  convict  people  of  sin.  It 
was  no  oracle,  unless  it  were  of  condemnation.  It 
revealed  nothing  but  iniquity ;  it  proclaimed  noth- 
ing but  doom.  In  appealing  to  conscience,  Prot- 
estantism appealed  to  no  human  power,  but  to  an 
authority  above  humanity,  on  which  humanity  was 
absolutely  dependent,  before  which  humanity  must 
devoutly  kneel.  The  conscience  of  the  believer, 
the  conscience  enlightened  and  renewed  by  grace, 
furnished  the  new  point  of  immediate  spiritual 
contact  with  God.  But  the  conscience  of  the  un- 
believer rendered  no  such  divine  service.  What 
respect  had  Luther  for  the  consciences  of  the  poor 
peasants  who,  getting  an  inkling  of  natural  human 
rights  from  the  Bible,  and  interpreting  justice  by 
the  awakened  feeling  of  their  hearts,  rose  in  insur- 
rection against  their  brutal  lords ?  "I  am  of  opin- 
ion that  all  the  peasants  ought  to  perish,  rather 
than  the  princes  and  magistrates,  since  they  take 
up  the  sword  without  divine  authority.  The  peas- 
ants deserve  no  mercy,  no  tolerance,  but  the  in- 
dignation of  God  and  man."  "  The  peasants  are 
under  the  ban  both  of  God  and  the  emperor,  and 
may  be  treated  as  mad  dogs."  What  consideration 
had  Luther  for  the  conscience  of  the  earnest  and 
indefatigable  Carlstadt,  who  felt  himself  impelled 
to  enter  the  church  at  Wittemberg  and  destroy  the 


276  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

crucifixes,  images,  and  altars,  —  who,  pressing  the 
Protestant  principle,  as  he  received  it,  to  its  results, 
questioned  the  doctrine  of  the  real  presence  of 
Christ  in  the  Eucharist?  Carlstadt  was  an  uncom- 
fortable fellow,  but  he  was  a  true  and  uncompro- 
mising reformer.  Does  Luther  deal  with  him  as  an 
over-zealous  brother?  He  deals  with  him  as  a 
miscreant.  "  Pray  for  me,  and  help  me  to  trample 
under  foot  this  Satan  that  has  arisen  at  Wittem- 
berg  against  the  Gospel,  in  the  name  of  the  Gospel. 
It  will  be  difficult  to  persuade  Carlstadt  to  give 
way ;  but  Christ  will  constrain  him,  if  he  does  not 
yield  of  himself.  For  we  are  masters  of  life  and 
death,  we  who  believe  in  the  Master  of  life  and 
death."  "  The  spirit  of  the  new  prophets  aspires 
to  be  the  highest  spirit,  a  spirit  which  has  eaten 
the  Holy  Ghost,  feathers  and  all.  '  Bible,'  they 
cry  out ;  yes,  Bible,  Bubel,  Babel.^  What  regard 
did  Luther  show  for  the  conscience  of  the  Anabap- 
tists of  Munster, — fanatical  people  who,  doubtless 
with  intentions  as  serious  as  his  own,  proposed  to 
reconstruct  society  on  what  they  held  to  be  Gospel 
principles  ?  "  Is  it  not  clear,"  he  cries,  "  that  the 
devil  reigns  at  Miiuster  in  person,  or  rather  that 
there  is  a  whole  troop  of  devils  ?  "  "  When  God 
in  his  wrath  deprives  us  of  his  word,  no  deceit  of 
the  devil's  is  too  gross.  The  best  weapon  against 
the  devil  is  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  the  word  of 
God.  The  devil  is  a  spirit,  and  laughs  at  cuirass, 
horse,  and  horseman.  The  devil  keeps  the  hot  soup 
in  his  mouth,  and  only  mutters  wmm,  mum.  Well, 


THE  SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          277 

devil !    Mutter  and  spit  as  you  list ;  one  little  word 
overthrows  all  you  say." 

In  all  this  it  cannot  fairly  be  said  that  Luther 
was  untrue  to  his  principle.  His  principle  never 
admitted  the  validity  of  the  unregenerated  con- 
science. In  common  with  all  the  reformers  who  have 
been  associated  with  the  Protestant  movement,  he 
held  as  a  cardinal  truth  the  doctrine  of  human 
depravity,  the  vital  need  of  supernatural  grace,  and 
the  indispensable  importance  of  faith  grounded  on 
belief,  to  make  the  grace  available.  There  was 
not  the  faintest  suspicion  of  Transcendentalism 
about  them.  They  deemed  it  a  holy  duty  to  put 
the  natural  reason  down.  Luther,  indeed,  con- 
demned resort  to  physical  violence.  He  had  no 
mind  to  baptize  unbelievers  in  their  own  blood. 
"  I  will  not,"  he  said,  "  use  carnal  weapons  to 
spread  the  Gospel."  "  Preach  I  will,  talk,  write  ;  but 
compel  I  will  not.  For  belief  must  be  voluntary, 
unforced,  spontaneous."  Luther  put  his  vehe- 
mence into  speech ;  his  words  smote  like  two- 
edged  swords ;  his  language  was  a  consuming  fire. 
But  the  less  passionate,  unsympathetic,  unenthu- 
siastic  Calvin  burned  Servetus  as  logically  and  im- 
perturbably  as  Alexander  burnt  Savonarola,  or  as 
John  burnt  Huss.  Toleration  did  not  make  part 
of  the  plan.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  they 
could  not  rise  superior  to  the  spirit  of  their  age. 
They  could  not  rise  superior  to  their  religion,  and 
they  had  no  wish  to.  Their  religion  was  the 
Christianity  of  the  Middle  Ages  fortified  by  a  new 
guarantee. 


278  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

The  protest  was  not  against  doctrines,  but  against 
the  external  dispensation  of  doctrines.  Could  they 
who  made  it  have  imagined  that  their  work  would 
have  been  misunderstood  as  it  has  been,  they  would 
have  remained  in  the  Roman  communion  for  ever. 

That  Luther  and  his  disciples,  near  and  remote, 
should  have  held  fast  the  dogmas  of  the  orthodox 
faith,  trinity,  incarnation,  atonement,  fall  and  re- 
demption, is  not  to  be  wondered  at.  How  could 
they  have  done  otherwise  ?  The  time  for  theologi- 
cal doubt  on  these  questions  had  not  come.  The 
point  to  be  emphasized  is  this:  They  did  all  they 
could  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  any  such  doubt. 
They  wanted  to  make  every  thing  as  fast  as  the 
Roman  Church  had  made  it,  and  faster,  for  they 
would  gladly  have  made  all  things  secure  against  a 
second  Reformation.  '  They  had  renounced  one 
authority,  but  only  in  the  hope  of  establishing 
another,  equally  or  more  stringent.  They  had  no 
idea  of  being  Godless,  Christless,  or  churchless. 
Three  points  they  insisted  on :  — 

I.  The  first  and  cardinal  point  was  the  absolute 
dependence  of  the  individual  on  the  Almighty 
Power,  the  Eternal  Will,  which  appoints  his 
destiny,  and  determines  absolutely  his  whole  life 
and  being.  The  most  characteristic  form  of  Prot- 
estantism is  Calvinism  ;  but  Calvin  did  not  surpass 
Luther  in  the  force  with  which  he  laid  down  the 
doctrine  of  predestination  by  the  divine  decrees. 
The  iron  thread  of  predetermining  law  runs  through 
the  whole  system,  binding  reason  and  will  in  fatal 


THE  SOUL    OF  PROTESTANTISM.  279 

bonds.  Protestantism,  in  its  essence,  is  the  effort 
of  the  aivakened  soul  to  secure  its  salvation  by  unit- 
ing itself  with  the  absolute  cause  of  all  blessedness, 
the  infinite  and  eternal  G-od.  Luther  made  this 
central  doctrine  the  basis  of  his  reform,  laying 
^stress  particularly  on  the  subjection  of  the  human 
will ;  Zwingli  was  attracted  by  the  other  aspect  of 
the  conception,  the  absolute  Godhead,  the  divine 
prevision ;  Calvin  completed  the  dogma  by  devel- 
oping in  full  proportions  the  principle  of  the  eter- 
nal decrees.  No  one  tolerably  acquainted  with  the 
literature  of  the  early  Reformation  has  failed  to 
observe  the  overshadowing  importance  given  to  this 
speculation,  or  has  missed  the  fact  that  it  was  in- 
sisted on  as  a  safeguard  against  the  irruption  of 
unregenerated  nature.  So  long  as  the  determining 
causality  of  God  could  be  maintained,  there  was  no 
danger  from  rebellion.  F.  C.  Baur,  a  profound 
student  of  this  whole  subject,  says :  "  That,  in 
the  entire  relation  between  man  and  God,  as  well 
moral  as  religious,  nothing  proceeds  from  human 
activity,  but  every  thing,  from  the  apprehension  of 
the  saving  truth  to  the  blessed  results  thereof, 
every  thing  depends  on  the  unconditioned  will  of 
the  absolute  cause,  is  an  essential  assumption  of 
Protestantism."  Equally  essential,  no  doubt,  was 
the  assumption  of  freedom.  Luther  laid  stress 
enough  on  that,  when  on  the  ground  of  freedom 
he  defied  Church  and  Papacy,  and  all  spiritual 
wickedness  in  high  places.  But  that  freedom  was 
simply  freedom  to  respond  to  the  inviting  Saviour, 


280  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

—  freedom  to  embrace  the  Christ  as  freedom  with 
the  Catholic  was  freedom  to  join  the  Church. 
Neither  Catholic  nor  Protestant  called  the  choice 
of  a  false  religion  freedom ;  that  was  slavery. 

II.  The  next  point  was  the  immediate  concourse 
of  God,  in  Christ,  with  the  human  soul ;  immediate, 
without  the  intervention  of  priests ;  a  direct,  con- 
scious, vital  communion,  conditioned  on  faith  in  the 
Redeemer.     In  this  union,  the  disciple  was  made 
partaker  of  the  renewing  life  as  completely  as  was 
ever  claimed  by   subject   of  the   Papal   Church. 
Faith  was  the  soul's  reaction  on  the  Saviour. 

III.  The  third  point,  an  indispensable  one,  was 
the  sufficiency  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament,  Law  and  Gospel.     To  quote 
Dr.  Scheukel,  a  famous  living  theologian  of  the 
liberal  Protestant  school:  "  The  contents  of  religion 
are  in  God  himself ;  and  since  man  is  conscious  of 
God  only  as  God   reveals   himself,  for  man  the 
contents  of  religion  are  in  the  written  revelation. 
Most  gloriously  and  completely  has  God  manifested 
himself  in  the  person  of  Christ ;  and  the   Holy 
Scriptures  give  the  history  of  that  manifestation. 
The  Holy  Scripture,  as  the  word  or  revelation  of 
God,  contains  the  divine  substance.     Conscience 
is  free ;  but  true  freedom  consists  in  obedience  to 
the  truth.     Caprice  is  no  freedom.     That  only  is 
genuinely  free  which  is  bound  to  God.    Hence  the 
Protestant  position,  while  appealing  to  conscience, 
at  the  same  time  insists  that  conscience  is  bound  to 
God's  word,  and  can  attain  outside  of  that  to  noth- 


TEE   SOUL    OF  PROTESTANTISM.          281 

ing.     It  is  therefore  the  special  characteristic   of 
Protestantism  to  be  the  religion  of  the  Bible" 

Here  Schenkel,  writing  at  Heidelberg,  only  twelve 
years  ago,  repeats  what  Chillingworth  said  two 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  years  ago.  Chillingworth 
had  changed  from  Protestant  to  Catholic  and  back 
again.  He  was  now  writing  against  the  Catholics 
in  a  strain  so  liberal  as  to  offend  his  Protestant 
allies :  "  The  BIBLE,  I  say,  the  BIBLE  only,  is  the 
religion  of  Protestants.  Whatsoever  else  they  be- 
lieve beside  it  and  the  plain,  irrefragable,  indubi- 
table consequences  of  it,  well  may  they  hold  it  as 
matter  of  opinion.  I,  for  my  part,  after  a  long  and, 
as  I  readily  believe  and  hope,  impartial  search  of  the 
true  way  to  eternal  happiness,  do  profess  plainly 
that  I  cannot  find  any  true  rest  for  the  sole  of  my 
foot  but  upon  this  rock  only.  Propose  me  any 
thing  out  of  this  book,  and  require  whether  I 
believe  it  or  no,  and,  seem  it  never  so  incompre- 
hensible to  human  reason,  I  will  subscribe  to  it  with 
hand  and  heart,  as  knowing  no  demonstration  can 
be  stronger  than  this :  God  hath  said  so,  and  there- 
fore it  must  be  true.  In  other  things  I  will  take 
no  man's  liberty  of  judgment  from  him,  neither 
shall  any  man  take  mine  from  me.  I  will  think  no 
man  the  worse  man,  nor  the  worse  Christian.  I 
will  love  no  man  the  less  for  differing  in  opinion 
from  me.  I  am  fully  assured  that  God  does  not, 
and  that,  therefore,  men  ought  not  to  require  any 
more  of  any  man  than  this :  to  believe  the  Script- 
ure to  be  God's  word,  to  endeavor  to  find  the  true 
sense  of  it,  and  to  live  according  to  it/' 


282  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

To  the  objection  that  Protestants  do  not  agree 
in  their  interpretations  of  Scripture,  and  therefore 
some  of  them  must  miss  the  truth  and  fall  into 
error,  Chillingworth  replies :  "  The  most  disa- 
greeing Protestants  that  are,  yet  thus  far  agree : 
1.  That  those  books  of  Scripture  which  were  never 
doubted  of  in  the  Church  are  the  undoubted  word 
of  God  and  a  perfect  rule  of  faith ;  2.  That  the 
sense  of  them  which  God  intended,  whatsoever  it 
is,  is  certainly  true  ;  so  that  they  believe  implicitly 
even  these  very  truths  against  which  they  err,  and 
why  an  implicit  faith  in  Christ  and  his  word  should 
not  suffice  as  well  as  an  implicit  faith  in  your 
church,  I  have  desired  to  be  resolved  by  many  of 
your  side,  but  never  could ;  3.  That  they  are  to  use 
their  best  endeavors  to  believe  the  Scripture  in  the 
true  sense,  and  to  live  according  to  it.  This,  if  they 
perform  truly  and  sincerely,  it  is  impossible  but  that 
they  should  believe  aright  in  all  things  necessary  to 
salvation."  But  the  Scripture  stands  in  need  of 
some  watchful  and  unerring  eye  to  guard  it.  "  Very 
true  ;  but  this  is  no  other  than  the  watchful  eye  of 
Divine  Providence.  God,  requiring  men  to  believe 
Scripture  in  its  purity,  engages  himself  to  see  it 
preserved  in  sufficient  purity  ;  and  you  need  not 
fear  but  he  will  satisfy  his  engagement."  And 
again  (for  I  am  anxious  to  make  this  position  as  clear 
as  light,  and  no  language  is  so  frank  as  Chilling- 
worth's)  :  "  The  promise  of  Divine  assistance  is 
twofold,  absolute  or  conditional.  That  there  shall 
be  by  Divine  Providence  preserved  in  the  world, 


TEE  SOUL    OF  PROTESTANTISM.         283 

to  the  world's  end,  such  a  company  of  Christians, 
who  hold  all  things  precisely  and  indispensably 
necessary  to  salvation,  and  nothing  inevitably  de- 
structive of  it ;  this,  and  no  more,  God  hath 
promised  absolutely.  But  a  further  assistance  is 
conditionally  promised,  even  such  an  assistance  as 
shall  lead  us,  if  we  be  not  wanting  to  it  and 
ourselves,  into  all,  not  only  necessary,  but  very 
profitable  truth,  and  guard  us  from  all,  not  only 
destructive,  but  also  hurtful  errors." 

In  1863,  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of  the 
Church  of  England,  in  their  protest  to  Bishop 
Colenso,  affirmed :  "  All  our  hopes  for  eternity, 
the  very  foundation  of  our  faith,  our  nearest  and 
dearest  consolations  are  taken  from  us,  if  one  line 
of  the  Sacred  Book  be  declared  unfaithful  or  un- 
trustworthy." And  Colenso  had  merely  called  in 
question  the  Old  Testament^  arithmetic  ! 

From  all  this  it  appears  that  Protestantism  was  a 
system ;  not  a  movement,  but  a  system,  as  fixed 
and  determinate  as  that  of  Rome.  It  erected 
against  unbelief  what  it  considered  to  be  impregna- 
ble barriers,  and  it  guarded  them  with  a  mastiff's 
watchfulness.  An  inflexible  creed  could  not  be 
imposed,  nor  was  it  thought  desirable,  at  least  it 
was  never  entertained  as  feasible.  There  was  little 
consistency  of  opinion  among  the  reformers  on 
speculative  dogmas.  They  soon  engaged  in  con- 
troversies, and  fell  asunder  in  divisions.  The  dis- 
putes about  the  sacraments  were  bitter,  —  about 
the  fall  of  Adam,  imputed  sin  and  righteousness, 


284      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

predestination  to  bliss  or  bane.  The  confessions 
were  at  issue  on  cardinal  points  of  doctrine.  Some 
were  compromised,  others  were  dropped.  In  course 
of  time  great  modifications  were  made  in  the  body 
of  the  Protestant  theology.  Lutherans  departed 
widely  from  Luther.  The  Lutheran  Church  in 
America  deals  gently  with  doctrinal  differences ; 
they  drop  the  doctrine  of  the  real  presence,  reject 
the  authority  of  the  Fathers,  and  insist  only  on  the 
fundamentals,  the  necessity  of  personal  union  with* 
Christ  and  faith  in  the  sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures. 
But  they  do  insist  on  these.  Calvinists  modify  ma- 
terially, in  some  respects  essentially,  the  beliefs 
held  of  prime  moment  by  John  Calvin,  but  belief 
in  the  necessity  of  regeneration  through  and  by 
Christ,  and  in  the  sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures,  is 
never  relaxed.  The  members  of  the  Evangelical 
Alliance  are  very  tolerant  beyond  certain  limits ; 
they  talk  as  if  they  had  caught  the  vision  of  the 
Free  Religion  men.  But  touch  with  your  little 
finger  the  faith  in  the  Saviour,  the  necessity  of  a 
vital  spiritual  communion  with  him,  the  miraculous 
character  and  divine  authority  of  the  Word  of  God, 
and  they  are  as  sensitive  as  Luther  was  on  the 
point  of  the  sacrament,  or  the  dogma  of  predestina- 
tion. The  evangelical  unions  through  the  country 
seem  to  be  very  generous  in  surrendering  unessen- 
tial points ;  but  the  essential  points  are  never 
qualified,  or  put,  even  by  implication,  in  debate. 
A  recent  correspondent  of  the  "  London  Spectator," 
a  Congregationalist,  old  and  zealous,  indignantly 


THE   SOUL    OF  PROTESTANTISM.  285 

protests  against  the  insinuation  that  there  is  any 
doctrinal  despotism  in  the  churches  of  his  connec- 
tion. But  he  does  not  deny  that  the  discipleship 
in  Christ,  and  the  revelation  in  the  Bible,  are  as 
cardinal  now  as  ever.  No  man  says  such  hard 
things  of  the  Protestant  theology  as  Henry  W. 
Beecher.  If  we  may  credit  the  gossips,  he  serves 
Luther  as  Luther  served  the  Pope,  and  deals  out 
figuratively  to  Calvin  the  measure  Calvin  dealt  to 
Servetus,  fastening  up  the  fundamentals  for  deri- 
sion, and  scorching  the  articles  with  invective  ;  but 
on  a  late  occasion,  when  he  cut  himself  adrift  from 
the  churches,  he  avowed  with  whimsical  solemnity 
his  faith  in  the  necessity  of  personal  regeneration 
through  Christ.  As  the  tide  flows  in  and  out  of 
a  bay,  people  may  drift  into  and  out  of  his  church, 
yet  the  church  consists  only  of  those  who  are  made 
one  with  God  in  Christ ! 

A  popular  Congregational  preacher  bestows  a 
generous  ministry  on  the  horse.  Does  he  despair 
of  the  Gospel,  or  only  of  the  man  ?  As  St.  Paul 
turned  from  the  unbelieving  Jews  to  the  Gentiles, 
does  he  turn  from  his  church-members  to  the  quad- 
ruped ?  The  same  apostle  contrasts  favorably  the 
moral  condition  of  Turk  and  Hindu  with  that  of 
Christians.  Does  he  think  the  Hindus  and  Turks 
need  no  regeneration,  or  only  that  the  Christians 
need  it  more  ?  Is  he  eulogizing  the  lost,  or  casti- 
gating the  chosen?  Mr.  Alanson  Picton,  in  a  note  in 
his  remarkable  volume,  "  The  Mystery  of  Matter," 
says  that  in  England  many  non-conformist  places 


286      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

of  worship  contain  the  Westminster  Confession  on 
their  title-deeds.  "  But  I  know,"  he  says,  "  by 
experience,  that  the  assumption  of  office  by  the 
minister  may  be  preceded, "not  by  a  signature  of  the 
creed,  but  by  an  express  repudiation  of  it."  He 
tells  the  story  of  a  young  student  who  was  sent 
out  from  his  college  to  preach  at  a  village  chapel. 
The  man  who  met  him  at  the  railway  station  was 
curious  to  know  what  precise  altitude  of  doctrine 
the  congregation  might  expect  on  Sunday.  On  his 
part  the  divinity  student  was  curious  to  learn  how 
the  congregation  stood  in  regard  to  doctrine.  "  Well, 
yo'  seen,  sir,  some  on  'em  likes  it  igh  and  some  on 
'em  likes  it  low.  I  likes  it  middlin  igh  myse'n." 
This  indicates  a  vast  change  of  mental  attitude 
since  the  century  came  in ;  but  it  is  a  change  in 
regard  to  matters  which  have  always  been  subject 
to  change,  because  always  in  debate.  Protestants 
have  fought  hard  for  dogmatic  uniformity ;  but 
Protestantism  never  pledged  itself  to  such  uniform- 
ity. Protestantism  pledged  itself  to  nothing  but 
spiritual  union  with  Christ  through  faith,  and  the 
divine  sufficiency  of  the  Word  of  Grod.  This  implied 
many  things,  —  the  depravity  of  nature,  the  need  of 
supernatural  regeneration,  the  eternal  distinction 
between  the  elect  and  the  rejected.  But  on  all 
these  matters  shades  of  difference  were  allowed 
that  did  not  go-the  length  of  flittering  the  essen- 
tial faith  away. 

Sonic  will  ask  why  the  essential  faith  should  not 
be  frittered  away  at  last ;  why  the  process  of  dis- 


THE  SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          287 

integration  should  stop  where  it  is  ;  how  any  thing 
can  resist  the  course  of  demoralization  that,  setting 
in  at  the  moment  of  Protestantism's  birth,  has  gone 
on  with  such  prodigious  force  ever  since,  and  has 
so  completely  pulverized  every  other  ecclesiastical 
and  speculative  fragment  of  Christian  institution  ? 
I  answer,  Nothing  will  arrest  it.  The  decomposi- 
tion will  continue  till  the  whole  mass  is  decomposed. 
In  fact,  the  end  is  already  reached  over  large  tracts 
of  Christendom.  What  I  contend  for  is,  that,  when 
it  is  reached,  Protestantism  will  be  dead.  Instead 
of  gaining  its  last  victory  as  some  imagine,  it  will 
suffer'  its  final  defeat,  involving  the  final  defeat 
of  the  "  Christian  "  system.  For  Protestantism, 
is  intellectual,  as  distinguished  from  ecclesiastical 
Christianity.  Its  faith  in  Christianity  was  and  is 
as  absolute  as  that  of  Rome  ;  its  zeal  for  the  Christ 
was  and  is  as  intense ;  its  intellectual  and  moral 
grasp  was  and  is  more  convulsively  tenacious.  It 
was  an  effort  to  come  to  close  quarters  with  the 
Gospel,  to  penetrate  the  holy  of  holies,  to  meet  the 
Redeemer  face  to  face,  to  get  within  the  direct 
pressure  of  his  arm.  If  it  failed,  the  failure  does 
not  lie  at  its  door.  If  it  failed,  it  failed  because  it 
undertook  the  impossible.  If  it  failed,  the  final 
effort  to  recover  the  religion  which  Rome  was 
forced  to  let  go  —  which  the  sudden  cry  of  -a  sin- 
gle monk  precipitated  from  its  broad  sides,  as  the 
avalanche  slides  from  a  mountain,  and  leaves  it 
bare  —  is  exhausted,  and  the  system  of  Luther 
shares  the  fate  of  the  system  of  Hildebrand. 


288  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Six  years  ago,  Rev.  Ferdinand  Ewer,  of  Christ 
Church,  New  York,  delivered  a  series  of  remark- 
able discourses  on  the  "  Failure  of  Protestantism." 
They  were  delivered  in  the  interest  of  ecclesiastical 
Christianity,  Dr.  Ewer  being  an  eloquent  preacher 
of  the  "  High  Church"  theory.  His  points  were, 
and  he  put  them  with  great  force,  that  Protestant- 
ism had  failed  to  get  at  the  masses,  and  even  to 
retain  the  masses  it  found  prepared  to  receive  it ; 
that  its  logical  issue  is  Rationalism,  which  is  a 
repudiation  of  Christianity  ;  that  in  its  own  prov- 
inces, where  it  has  held  exclusive  sway  for  two  and 
a  half  centuries,  in  Germany  and  Switzerland  con- 
spicuously, scepticism  and  disbelief,  infidelity  and 
atheism,  are  regularly  sown  and  planted  (he  might 
have  added  by  so-called  Protestant  preachers). 
The  conclusion  is,  that  Protestantism  must  be 
abandoned,  —  and  the  Church  Catholic,  of  which 
the  Roman  Church  is  but  a  branch,  must  be  re- 
stored to  dignity  and  authority. 

Dr.  Ewer's  description  of  the  condition  of  Prot- 
estantism is  not  exaggerated  in  line  or  color.  Had 
he  written  in  the  autumn  of  1873,  after  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Evangelical  Alliance,  he  might  have 
put  in  effects  of  light  and  shadow  that  would  have 
made  it  more  sombre  still.  The  reports  of  the 
fereign  delegates  were  cloudy  with  disappointment 
and  misgiving.  If  their  statements  are  credible 
(and  certainly  they  would  not  have  made  such, 
had  they  been  able  to  make  others),  Protestantism 
is  rapidly  declining  in  Germany ;  it  makes  no  per- 


TEE  SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          289 

ceptible  progress  in  France  ;  in  Spain  and  Italy  it 
has  no  future.  It  achieves  no  fresh  conquests,  and 
at  every  point  is  giving  way  to  the  pressure  of 
secular  thought.  The  wail  of  Protestantism  is 
as  general  as  it  is  pathetic. 

But  Dr.  Ewer  is  clearly  wrong  in  ascribing  all 
this  ruin  to  Protestantism  itself,  —  to  a  fatal  prin- 
ciple which  it  carried  in  its  own  bosom,  to  the 
inevitable  logic  of  its  own  cardinal  idea.  He  is 
wrong  in  holding  Protestantism  responsible  for 
what  Protestantism  could  not  help.  If  Protes- 
tantism could  not  preserve  Christianity,  neither 
could  Catholicism.  If  Protestantism  cannot  pre- 
vent infidelity,  neither  could  Catholicism  prevent 
Protestantism,  and  to  charge  Parker  upon  Luther 
is  as  unfair  as  it  would  be  to  charge  Luther  upon 
Leo.  Back  of  them  both  was  a  power  which  was 
before  either,  and  which  they  Avere  unable  to  re- 
sist ;  and  that  power  was  the  HUMAN  MIND,  which 
is  more  than  all  churches  and  Bibles. 

But  has  not  all  this  ruin  come  about  through  the 
application  of  private  judgment  to  religion?  Most 
certainly.  And  is  not  the  right  of  private  judg- 
ment one  of  the  cardinal  principles,  if  not  the 
cardinal  principle,  of  Protestantism  ?  No.  Dr. 
Ewer  assumes  that  it  is,  on  the  authority  of  tra- 
dition. This  is  one  of  the  solemn  commonplaces 
of  Protestant  talk  and  writing.  Even  so  careful  a 
thinker  as  John  Stuart  Mill  speaks  of  the  Reforma- 
tion as  "  the  great  and  decisive  contest  against' 
priestly  tyranny  for  liberty  of  thought."  A  great, 

19 


290  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

though  hardly  a  decisive,  contest  against  priestly 
tyranny  it  certainly  was  ;  but  I  do  not  find  evidence 
that  it  was  for  liberty  of  thought.  It  was  for  a 
spiritual,  as  opposed  to  an  ecclesiastical  faith. 

.  But  surely  Luther  translated  the  Bible  into  the 
popular  German  speech,  in  order  that  the  humblest 
people  might  read  it ;  he  was  glad  to  have  it  multi- 
plied by  the  printing-press ;  in  fact,  the  invention 
of  the  printing-press  has  been  regarded  as  a  provi- 
dential aid  to  the  Protestant  religion,  because  it 
multiplied  copies  of  the  Bible.  Protestantism  is 
for  ever  urging  people  to  read  the  Bible  for  them- 
selves, is  thrusting  it  upon  people,  if  they  will  not 
buy  it,  giving  it  to  them,  without  note  or  comment, 
trusting  it  unreservedly  to  their  private  interpre- 
tation. What  does  this  imply,  if  not  the  fullest 
confidence  in  the  private  judgment,  the  fullest 
acceptance  of  the  principle  of  free  thought  ?  It 
implies  the  fullest  confidence  in  the  Bible. 

Luther  did  translate  the  Bible  ;  but  with  a  firm 
belief  in  its  inspired  and  inspiring  virtue,  with  the 
devoutest  of  devout  persuasion  that  it  was  more 
than  able  to  protect  itself  against  the  assaults  of 
unhalloAved  reason,  that  the  glory  which  gilded 
the  sacred  page  would  communicate  itself  to  all 
who  read  the  book.  Luther  supposed  that  the 
Bible  would  fall  into  the  hands  of  believers  to 
whom  an  answering  faith  would  explain  it  ;  of 
scientific  unbelievers  he  had  no  thought.  The 
*same  sublime  confidence  that  animated  Luther  to 
translate  the  Bible  animates  his  followers  to  dis- 


THE  SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          291 

seminate  it.  They  have  no  misgivings.  Their 
faith  that  the  book  not  merely  contains  the  divine 
word,  but  imparts  it,  —  that  it  has  power  to  teach, 
convince,  subdue,  —  that  no  honest  seeker  will 
miss  the  revelation  —  that  the  immanent  Christ 
will  work  wonders  of  conversion  by  means  of  the 
word,  —  that,  being  eternal,  it  cannot  perish, — 
that,  being  the  receptacle  and  organ  of  the  Spirit, 
it  will  evidence  and  communicate  the  Spirit :  this 
faith,  as  absolute  as  the  Romanist's  faith  in  his 
church,  holds  the  eyes  of  Protestants  so  that  they 
cannot  see  the  dangers  before  them.  They  regard 
the  prevalence  of  infidelity  as  an  inscrutable  dis- 
pensation, a  strange  phenomenon,  —  intended  per- 
haps as  a  trial  of  their  faith  ;  but  it  never  occurs 
to  them  to  doubt  that  their  faith  will  be  justified 
in  the  end.  So  far  from  connecting  infidelity  with 
the  free  reading  of  the  Bible,  they  are  convinced 
that  the  free  reading  of  the  Bible  will  check  infi- 
delity. To  conceive  any  other  result  is  to  them 
impossible.  They  could  as  easily  conceive  of  God 
as  a  liar. 

Private  judgment  with  Protestants  is  opposed 
to  priestly  judgment ;  it  means  that  the  sense  of 
Scripture  comes  immediately  to  the  individual,  not 
mediately, — just  as  Christ  himself  does;  that  it 
is  each  believer's  own  concern.  It  does  not  mean 
liberty  to  read  the  Bible  like  any  other  book,  to 
try  it  by  literary  laws,  to  judge  its  contents  by 
rational  standards ;  but  merely  liberty  to  find  the 
oracles  of  God  there,  —  not  liberty  to  detect  error, 


292  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

but  liberty  to  be  personally  assured  of  the  truth. 
This  point  cannot  be  made  sharp  enough.  With 
Protestants,  the  liberty  of  private  judgment  ex- 
cludes doubt,  implies  faith  to  start  with.  To  start 
without  faith  is  next  door  to  sacrilege.  Protestants 
are  fond  of  quoting  Pastor  Robinson's  farewell  ad- 
dress to  the  pilgrims  at  Delft  Haven :  — 

*'  Brethren,  we  are  now  quickly  to  part  from  one 
another,  and  whether  I  may  ever  live  to  see  your 
faces  on  earth  any  more  the  God  of  heaven  only 
knows  ;  but  whether  the  Lord  has  appointed  that 
or  no,  I  charge  you  before  God  and  his  blessed 
angels  that  you  follow  me  no  further  than  you 
have  seen  me  follow  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  If  God  reveal  any  thing  to  you  by  any  other 
instrument  of  his,  be  as  ready  to  receive  it  as  ever 
you  were  to  receive  any  truth  by  my  ministry ;  for 
I  am  verily  persuaded  the  Lord  has  more  truth  yet 
to  break  forth  out  of  His  Holy  Word.  For  my 
part,  I  cannot  sufficiently  bewail  the  condition  of 
the  reformed  churches,  who  are  come  to  a  pe- 
riod in  religion,  and  will  go  at  present  no  further 
than  the  instruments  of  their  reformation.  The 
Lutherans  cannot  be  drawn  to  go  beyond  what 
Luther  said  ;  whatever  part  of  his  will  our  God 
has  revealed  to  Calvin,  they  will  rather  die  than 
embrace  it ;  and  the  Calvinists  you  see  stick  fast 
where  they  were  left  by  that  great  man  of  God, 
who  yet  saw  not  all  things. 

"  This  is  a  misery  much  to  be  lamented.  I  be- 
seech you,  remember,  it  is  an  Article  of  your 


THE  SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.         293 

Church  Covenant,  '  That  you  shall  be  ready  to 
receive  whatever  truth  shall  be  made  known  to 
you  from  the  written  word  of  God.' ' 

Noble  words,  spoken  in  Protestantism's  noblest 
spirit !  But  note  the  limitations.  The  truth  must 
be  "  made  known  from  the  written  word  of  God." 
The  good  man's  vision  of  new  truth  as  "  breaking 
forth  out  of  God's  Holy  Word  "  did  not  include 
any  new  truth  which  might  break  forth  outside  of 
it.  He  has  no  thought  of  any  new  WOKD.  Such 
thought  would  have  been  blasphemy.  It  was  be- 
cause the  Bible  was  the  divine  word  that  more  and 
more  truth  might  be  anticipated  from  its  bottomless 
resources.  The  prophecy  was  inspired  by  his  con- 
fidence in  the  Bible,  not  by  his  confidence  in  the 
human  mind.  Strauss  says  well :  "  The  men  of 
the  Reformation  conquered  for  us  the  right  of  free 
inquiry  in  Scripture  ;  but  modern  science  has  con- 
quered for  itself  the  right  of  free  inquiry  about 
Scripture." 

To  identify  Protestantism  with  liberty  of  thought 
is  a  mistake.  It  has  opposed  liberty  of  thought  as 
vigorously  as  Romanism  ever  did,  and  in  the  same  in- 
terest. Rome  did  not  discourage  liberty  of  thought, 
so  long  as  it  did  not  trespass  on  her  ground.  The 
moment  free  thought  trespassed  on  her  ground, 
Protestantism  objected.  In  what  directions  has 
Protestantism  encouraged  liberty  of  thought  ? 
Not  in  the  direction  of  Scripture  interpretation. 
Small  encouragement  has  she  given  to  scholars 
like  DeWette,  Schenkel,  Schwegler,  Colenso.  Not 


294  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

in  the  direction  of  theological  speculation.  How 
has  she  treated  heresy  ?  What  was  her  attitude 
towards  Dr.  Channiug  and  the  Unitarians  ?  How  did 
"she  receive  Theodore  Parker  ?  "  Oh,  Lord  if  this 
man  is  a  subject  of  grace,  convert  him  and  bring 
him  into  the  kingdom  of  thy  dear  Son.  But 
if  he  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the  saving  influences 
of  the  Gospel,  remove  him  out  of  the  way,  and  let 
his  influence  die  with  him."  What  course  does 
Protestantism  pursue  towards  rationalists?  Who 
fixed  the  stigma  to  the  word  "  infidel  "  ?  Who 
gave  to  free  thinking  its  bad  name  ?  In  what  tone 
do  the  organs  of  Protestantism  speak  of  the  liberal 
movement  generally  in  religion  ?  The  comments 
of  the  entire  Protestant  press  on  a  late  conven- 
tion of  the  Free  Religious  Association  sufficiently 
prove  its  hostility  to  thought,  when  it  passes  be- 
yond its  own  border  line.  Does  Protestantism 
encourage  liberty  of  thought  in  the  direction  of 
positive  knowledge  of  the  material  universe  ?  Ask 
Tyndall,  ask  Huxley,  ask  Darwin,  ask  Herbert 
Spencer.  The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
of  New  York  refused  to  admit  to  their  reading-room 
the  "  Popular  Science  Monthly." 

"  But  this  is  backsliding,"  you  will  say ;  "  this  is 
recreancy ;  this  is  infidelity  to  its  first  principle." 
Pardon  me,  no.  It  is  fidelity  to  its  first  principle  ; 
it  is  steadfastness ;  it  is  conscientious  loyalty  to 
traditions.  It  is  not  quite  true  to  say  that  Protes- 
tantism was,  from  the  start,  inconsistent  with  it- 
self; that,  as  a  complex  fact,  it  was'  struck  with  a 


THE   SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          295 

radical  contradiction.  It  would  have  been  so  had 
it  appealed  to  reason  and  encouraged  free  inves- 
tigation ;  for  then  it  would  have  said  almost  in  plain 
language,  "  Be  free,  and  remain  enslaved."  The 
magic  word  "  liberty,"  which  stirred  the  motions 
of  nascent  thought  in  the  modern  world,  and  at 
last  shook  the  fabric  of  belief  in  pieces,  was  not 
spoken  by  Martin  Luther.  He  admitted  nothing 
contradictory  or  inconsistent. 

Foolish  persons,  seeing  Protestantism  come  in 
accompanied  by  literature,  invention,  discovery,  the 
useful  arts,  civil  liberty,  popular  movements  of  re- 
form, the  industrial  advance  of  the  common  people, 
talk  as  if  it  called  them  all  into  being  !  You  might 
as  well  say  that  the  sail  of  a  ship  causes  the 
wind,  that  the  mowing-machine  calls  into  existence 
the  prairie,  or  that  the  telegraph  wires  cause  elec- 
tricity. After  hearing  the  pastor  of  a  Unitarian 
church  ascribe  the  post-office  to  Christianity,  noth- 
ing surprises  me ;  that  pious  people  should  give 
Protestantism  credit  for  the  printing-press  and  the 
submarine  cable  seems  rational.  The  same  folk 
believe  that  Tenterden  steeple  was  the  cause  of 
Goodwin  Sands,  and  that  thunder  is  the  cause  of 
lightning.  Athanase  Coquerel  gives  Protestantism 
credit  for  three  things :  1.  Spiritual  liberty,  includ- 
ing a  full  sense  of  private  responsibility;  2.  The 
family  spirit,  as  opposed  to  the  monkish ;  3.  The 
independence  of  the  laity.  But  spiritual  liberty,  in 
our  sense  of  the  term,  she  never  gave.  The  family 
spirit  was  native  to  the  Germans,  who  first  gave 


296      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Protestantism  a  home.  The  independence  of  the 
laity  became  inevitable  when  the  priesthood  was 
abolished  ;  but  it  was  postponed  and  prevented 
and  thwarted  by  the  prophetic  spirit,  which  stepped 
into  its  place  and  has  not  even  yet  resigned  it. 
The  secular  elements  of  the  world  have  not  much 
to  thank  Protestantism  for. 

There  is  a  superstition  that  Protestantism  waked 
the  human  mind  from  a  sleep  of  ages.  Does  the 
opening  eyelid  of  the  child  create  the  morning  ? 
Accepting  the  illusion,  it  is  singular  that  Protes- 
tantism should  so  soon  have  discovered  that  it  had 
roused  the  wrong  passenger,  and  done  its  best  to 
put  him  to  sleep  again,  as  the  nurse  tries  to  abolish 
the  morning  by  soothing  syrup. 

Protestantism  was  an  indication  that  the  human 
mind  was  beginning  to  stir ;  it  was  a  convulsive 
twitching  of  the  giant's  eyelids.  The  huge  creat- 
ure had  turned  and  stretched  before.  Arnold  of 
Brescia,  Giordano  Bruno,  Huss,  Savonarola,  Wyc- 
lifTe,  were  heavings  of  the  monstrous  frame.  It 
was  the  human  mind  that  shook  Rome  as  Encel- 
adus  shook  Etna.  It  burst  out  with  a  great  cry 
in  Martin  Luther.  It  set  Protestantism  against  it- 
self; it  fell  upon  the  dogmas  one  by  one  and  pulled 
them  about  till  not  one  of  them  can  be  recognized 
in  its  tattered  garb.  It  took  the  printed  Bible, 
read  it,  studied  it,  sifted  it,  proved  it  uninspired, 
adopted  it  among  the  products  of  literature,  and 
passed  on  to  find  other  words  of  truth.  It  showed 
the  eternal  Christ  to  have  been  a  man,  the  pri- 


THE  SOUL   OF  PROTESTANTISM.          -97 

meval  Adam  to  have  been  a  myth,  the  tempter  to 
have  been  a  teacher,  and  the  fall  to  have  been  a 
rise.  It  dashed  idol  after  idol,  and  at  every  stroke 
said,  "  Nehushtan,"  mere  brass.  It  took  personality 
from  the  Holy  Ghost,  reducing  it  to  an  influence. 
The  stage  properties  of  the  drama  of  Redemption 
it  remanded  to  the  lumber-room  ;  and  now  it  smiles 
when  the  mile-stones  it  has  passed  boast  of  having 
impelled  its  progress  along  a  road  of  their  building. 

Dr.  Ewer  calls  Protestantism  a  pestilent  heresy, 
and  warns  us  to  go  back  to  the  Church.  But 
the  Church  could  not  hold  the  human  mind  three, 
hundred  years  ago,  when  it  was  an  infant  as  com- 
pared with  its  present  growth.  Protestantism 
proved  that  the  hierarchy  was  a  pestilent  heresy. 
They  are  now  both  heresies  to  human  thought, 
which  throws  them  off  as  the  serpent  sheds  his 
skin. 

The  word  Protestantism  will  outlive  the  thing  ; 
the  name  always  survives  the  faith.  Already  it  is 
borne  by  many  who  have  discarded  the  religion  it 
stood  for.  Unitarians,  Universalists,  Transcenden- 
talists,  Rationalists,  call  themselves  Protestants, 
even  Protestants  eminently  and  characteristically, 
Protestants  of  the  Protestants ;  though  they  have  no 
sympathy  whatever  with  the  Protestant  idea.  The 
Protestant  camp  swarms  with  these  traitors  dis- 
guised as  friends.  Men  hate  to  drop  respectable 
uniforms.  The  whole  Protestant  army  will  go  over 
at  last  to  the  enemy,  of  course,  without  knowing 
it,  simply  because  they  wear  the  old  badges  and 


298  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

carry  the  old  flag.  Judge  the  power  of  Protes- 
tantism by  the  spread  of  its  name ;  it  looks  immense. 
Judge  of  it  by  the  vitality  of  its  spirit,  and  it 
shrinks  within  a  small  compass.  For  its  breath  is 
well-nigh  spent.  Liberty  of  thought  has  proved 
too  much  for  it.  What  seemed  a  terminus  proves 
to  be  a  way-station.  The  swift  mind  has  struck 
another  track,  and  presently  not  even  the  station- 
signal  will  be  visible. 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    299 


LIBERTY  AND  THE   CHURCH  IN  AMERICA. 
BY  JOHN  W.  CHADWICK. 

TN"  this  essay  I  am  to  speak  on  the  subject  of 
•*-  those  relations  which  subsist,  or  should  sub- 
sist, between  American  citizens,  as  such,  and  Re- 
ligion in  its  organized  capacity,  —  the  Church,  as 
we  say,  but  not  quite  correctly.  We  have  churches 
in  America,  but  no  Church.  By  some  among  us 
this  is  regarded  as  a  bad  arrangement,  and  pro- 
posals have  been  offered  for  a  change  which  will 
make  the  government  itself  a  sort  of  Church,  and 
secure  to  us  a  State  religion.  I  do  not  apprehend 
that  any  such  change  will  be  brought  about  at  an 
early  or  even  at  a  distant  day,  and  have  counted 
the  proposals  that  have  been  made  to  this  effect  as 
rather  a  piece  of  good  fortune  than  otherwise, 
furnishing  as  they  do,  in  connection  with  other 
proposals  and  events,  a  capital  excuse  for  the  re- 
opening of  questions  somewhat  prematurely  closed, 
and  a  discussion  of  them  which  must  inure  to  the 
advantage  of  right  principles,  and  a  more  rational 
and  vital  appropriation  of  ideas  which  heretofore 
have  been  the  objects  of  a  somewhat  lazy  acquies- 
cence. It  is  the  duty  and  the  privilege  of  each 
new  generation  rationally  to  consider,  and  accept 
or  reject,  the  institutions  and  the  customs  that 


300  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

have  come  down  to  it  from  the  past.  We  should 
be  ashamed  either  to  fail  or  flourish  upon  the 
wisdom  of  the  fathers  or  the  gracious  orderings  of 
tradition.  We  should  prove  all  things,  and  hold 
fast  to  that  which  is  good.  So  doing,  I  am  per- 
suaded that  the  people  of  America  will  not  only 
earnestly  endorse  the  framers  of  the  national  Con- 
stitution in  their  absolute  separation  of  the  State 
and  organized  religion,  but  proceed  to  harmonize 
all  special  legislation  with  the  organic  law  of  the 
nation.  It  will  be  seen  that  our  safety  for  the 
future  depends,  not  on  the  repeal  of  that  law,  but 
on  its  more  absolute  enforcement,  the  removal  from 
all  national  and  local  legislation  of  every  statute, 
and  from  all  educational  arrangements  of  every 
particular  method,  which  is  not  in  accordance  with 
that  pattern,  of  entire  religious  freedom  which  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  saw  in  their  mount  of 
vision. 

Between  the  State  and  organized  religion  three 
different  relations  are  possible,  and  have  been 
amply  illustrated  in  the  history  of  Christianity 
alone.  The  State  can  be  subjected  to  religion,  or 
religion  can  be  subjected  to  the  State,  or  the  two 
can  "  sit  apart  like  Gods."  We  can  have  a  State 
religion,  or  an  ecclesiastical  government,  or  the 
State  and  Church  existing  apart,  and  exerting 
only  a  moral  influence  upon  each  other.  Tt  is  a 
significant  fact  that  the  last  of  these  relations  has 
been  characteristic  of  the  most  vital  hours  of  Chris- 
tianity. Certainly  nothing  in  its  history  is  so 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    301 

remarkable  as  the  progress  which  it  made  in  the 
first  three  centuries  of  its  existence,  when  it  was 
entirely  independent  of  the  State,  save  as  an 
occasional  object  of  its  persecution.  Well  may 
Dr.  Newman,  referring  to  the  Christianity  of  that 
early  period,  speak  of  "  the  joyous  swing  of  her 
advance,"  and  quote  in  her  behalf  the  words, 
Incessu  patuit  Dea,  "  the  goddess  was  known  by 
her  step."  We  speak  of  Constantino  as  the  first 
Christian  emperor,  but  every  student  of  history 
knows  that  in  that  fatal  alliance  Christianity  lost 
more  than  it  won:  it  was  far  more  paganized  by 
Constantino  than  Constantino  was  Christianized 
by  it. 

The  next  great  period  of  the  Church's  growth 
and  distinction  was  when  the  force  of  circum- 
stances had  broken  up  this  wicked  alliance,  when 
Church  and  State  again  stood  separate,  and  often 
pitted  against  each  other.  Such  progress  as  there 
was  during  the  whole  middle  age  was  the  result 
of  that  separation  and  antagonism.  Meantime 
Mohammedanism,  that  had  started  with  so  many 
appearances  of  victory,  found  too  late  that  they 
were  omens  of  defeat.  There  the  union  of  Church 
and  State  was  complete,  and  neither  was  subor- 
dinate ;  and  the  result  is  that  both  Church  and 
State  have  been  involved  in  a  great  common  ruin. 
All  the  worst  evils  of  Mohammedan  rule  can  be 
traced  to  the  admixture  of  ecclesiasticism,  and  all 
the  worst  evils  and  defeats  of  the  religion  to  its 
connection  with  the  State.  Pius  IX.,  in  his  famous 


302  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Encyclical,  did  not  overstate  the  evils  of  a  purely 
national  administration  of  religion.  Luther  gave 
the  Reformation  its  worst  blow  when,  in  an  evil 
hour,  he  committed  it  to  the  care  of  the  German 
princes.  By  that  arrangement  Protestantism  was 
hopelessly  fettered,  and  German  unity  infinitely 
delayed.  In  Russia,  national  religion  shows  its 
usual  fruits  of  mediocrity  and  subserviency.  In 
all  her  history  not  one  really  great  name  has  been 
produced, —  so  vast  the  premium  upon  fools  and 
sycophants.  The  National  Church  of  Sweden 
can  rehearse  a  similar  tale  of  nerveless  languor 
and  respectability,  which  only  rouses  itself  for  an 
occasional  act  of  base  intolerance.  If  any  further 
proof  is  wanted  of  the  quality  of  national  religion, 
let  England  furnish  it,  —  England,  whose  Estab- 
lished Church  has  been  the  grave  of  all  enthu- 
siasm, of  all  progress,  of  all  earnestness.  It  has 
steadily  allied  itself  with  tyranny  and  oppression: 
it  has  endorsed  every  outrage  which  the  govern- 
ment has  committed ;  it  has  been  saved  from  utter 
death  and  absolute  corruption  only  by  the  whip 
and  spur  of  great  outlying  organizations,  such  as 
Puritanism  and  Quakerism  and  the  Methodist 
revival  of  the  eighteenth  century,  which  put  her 
somewhat  on  her  metal  and  her  good  behavior,  as 
Luther's  courage  knocked  at  the  heart  of  Loyola. 
If  to-day  she  feels  the  stirrings  of  a  mystic  energy, 
it  is -because  the  tie  between  her  and  the  State  is 
chafed  almost  to  breaking,  and  she  foretastes  the 
joy  of  perfect  liberation. 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    303 

The  subordination  of  religion  to  the  State  is 
mainly  hurtful  to  religion.  The  opposite  relation 
is  mainly  hurtful  to  the  State,  but  hardly  less  so  to 
religion.  The  later  papacy  is  its  most  striking 
illustration,  and  perhaps  it  would  not  be  extrava- 
gant to  say  that  the  government  of  God's  vicege- 
rent was  the  worst  government  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth.  "  God  save  us  from  infallible  rulers," 
any  people  might  well  say,  "  if  this  is  a  sample  of 
their  government."  The  less  the  government  that 
is  haggled  for,  the  worse  for  the  religion.  "  Foxes 
are  so  cunning  because  they  are  not  strong."  The 
weakness  of  the  temporal  power  has  nursed  the 
craft  of  Jesuitism  till  it  can  no  farther  go. 

It  would  seem  that  this  record  by  itself  would 
be  sufficient  to  deter  any  intelligent  citizen  of 
America  from  embarking,  ever  so  cautiously,  on  a 
voyage  having  for  its  object  to  obtain  the  golden 
fleece  of  an  ecclesiastical  government,  or  a  State 
religion.  We  are  assured  that  these  expressions 
do  not  fairly  represent  the  nature  of  the  thing 
attempted  ;  but  this  disavowal  pales  before  the  calls 
for  various  conventions  and  the  utterances  of  the 
most  intelligent  exponents  of  "  the  new  departure." 
These  earnest  people  do  not  seem  to  appreciate, 
even  if  they  consider,  the  signs  of  the  times. 
Everywhere  in  Europe  the  old  relations  between 
Church  and  State  are  being  weakened  or  com- 
pletely broken  up.  But  is  there  properly  no  re- 
lation between  them  ?  Indeed  there  is,  —  the  most 
vital  relation.  If  the  State  is  the  appointed  guar- 


304  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

dian  of  man's  dearest  interests,  it  must  be  somehow 
the  guardian  of  religion,  his  dearest  interest  of  all. 
And,  above  all,  it  must  guard  it  from  the  faintest 
semblance  of  government  interference  or  control. 
It  must  do  this  once  and  for  ever  in  its  organic  law. 
It  is  the  merit  of  our  national  government  as  it  is 
at  present  organized  that  it  does  this.  It  does  it 
not,  as  has  been  charged,  by  some  dreadful  over- 
sight, but  because  of  a  superior  insight.  The  men 
who  framed  our  Constitution  saw  that  the  life  of 
religion  consists  in  its  absolute  freedom.  They  saw 
that  only  harm  had  come  to  it  from  government 
interference  and  control.  They  saw  that  the  union 
of  Church  and  State  was  prejudicial  to  both  par- 
ties. They  had  two  great  examples  to  instruct 
them,  —  Rome  and  England.  In  Rome  the  eccle- 
siastical power  was  uppermost,  in  England  the 
political.  The  papal  government  was  beneath 
contempt ;  the  State  religion  of  England  was  a 
dull  and  passionless  conformity.  In  our  day  both 
of  these  alliances  are  breaking  up.  The  temporal 
power  of  the  Pope,  so  long  misused,  has  finally 
been  taken  from  him.  The  Roman  populace  can 
do  honor  to  their  dead  Mazzini,  and  no  one  shall 
say  them  nay.  For  political  purposes  the  Pope  is 
twice  as  dead  as  Mazzini,  who,  being  dead,  yet 
speaketh,  and  all  Europe  hears  his  voice.  In 
England  the  disestablishment  of  the  Established 
Church  is  only  a  question  of  time.  And  shall 
America,  in  the  very  hour  when  Europe  is  waking 
from  her  nightmare  sleep  of  centuries,  drug  her- 


LIBERTY  AND   THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    305 

self  with  the  same  poison  that  has  worked  in 
Europe's  veins  such  brooding  terrors,  such  slug- 
gishness, such  fierce,  wild  hate  and  cruelty  ?  I 
have  no  fears  that  she  will  do  so.  But  so  she  has 
been  earnestly  advised. 

The  proposed  Religious  Amendment  to  the  Con- 
'  stitution  invites  us  to  introduce  into  the  pream- 
ble of  that  Magna  Charta  the  following  words  : 
"  Humbly  acknowledging  Almighty  God  as  the 
source  of  all  authority  and  power  in  civil  govern- 
ment, the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  ruler  among 
the  nations,  his  revealed  will  as  the  law  of  the 
land,  in  order  to  constitute  a  Christian  govern- 
ment." Possibly  the  leaders  of  this  movement 
might  consent  to  change  the  wording  a  little ;  but 
as  it  stands  at  present  it  would  commit  the  nation, 
first,  to  a  belief  in  God,  then  to  the  lordship, 
messianic  office  and  deity  of  Christ  ("•  his  revealed 
will "  most  certainly  implying  this),  then  to  the 
establishment  of  a  Christocracy.  Reasons  of  vari- 
ous force  and  character  are  offered  in  behalf  of  this 
stupendous  change  in  the  organic  law  of  the  nation. 
Some  of  them  are  too  trivial  to  receive  a  moment's 
serious  attention. 

The  class  of  arguments  mainly  relied  upon  is 
that  which  goes  to  show  that  the  government  has 
always  been  implicitly  theistic  and  Christian, 
wherefore  it  should  be  so  explicitly.  There  is  a 
good  deal  of  truth  in  the  premises,  but  the  con- 
clusion does  not  follow.  Certainly  the  government 
ought  to  be  explicitly  what  it  is  implicitly,  but  this 

20 


306  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

harmony  can  be  brought  about  by  changing  the 
implicit  part  as  \vell  as  by  changing  the  explicit. 
If  the  appointment  of  congressional  and  army 
chaplains,  and  the  appointment  of  Thanksgiving 
and  Fast  days,  implies  that  we  have  a  Christian 
government,  might  it  not  be  better  to  surrender 
these  things  than  to  harmonize  the  Constitution 
with  them  and  accept  the  necessary  consequences 
of  such  action  ?  Fast  days  on  which  nobody  fasts 
are  dishonest  excuses  for  an  extra  holiday.  Thanks- 
giving Day  is  indispensable,  but  we  could  have  it 
just  the  same  or  all  the  better  without  the  govern- 
ment's appointing  it.  Should  the  government 
withhold  its  hand,  navy  and  army  chaplains  might 
still  be  provided,  and  religion  not  be  insulted  by 
any  one's  being  obliged  to  attend  upon  their  ser- 
vices. Congressional  chaplains  might  be  elected 
and  enjoyed  by  those  who  feel  the  need  of  them 
in  their  individual  capacity,  and  no  one  would  be 
outraged  or  committed,  though  it  may  well  be 
doubted  whether  one  less  dishonest  law  was  ever 
passed  by  any  legislative  body  on  account  of  the 
preliminary  intercession.  When  even  the  excellent 
chaplain  of  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Represent- 
atives, meaning  to  pray,  makes  stump  speeches  to 
the  Almighty  on  railroad  bills  and  woman's  suf- 
frage, it  becomes  a  question  whether  religion  is  not 
really  a  loser  by  this  conventional  arrangement. 
Still  I  am  unable  to  see  why  any  public  officer  has 
not  a  right  to  express  his  personal  religious  sense 
in  a  public  document,  and  can  but  feel  that  only 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    307 

bigotry  and  narrow-mindedness  can  take  umbrage 
at  any  such  expression.  If  it  is  a  duty  never  to 
offend  by  the  expression  of  our  religious  opinions, 
it  is  a  higher  duty  never  to  be  offended  by  the 
expression  of  another  man's,  if  the  expression  is 
sincere  and  natural.  The  assumption  that  our 
government  is  implicitly  theistic  or  Christian  or 
Biblical,  in  view  of  the  administration  of  oaths 
and  the  manner  of  their  administration,  has  some 
force  in  it ;  but  here,  again,  the  custom  had  better 
conform  to  the  Constitution  than  the  Constitution 
to  the  custom.  Our  Quaker  friends  do  not,  I 
imagine,  perjure  themselves  oftener  than  other 
people,  but  they  never  take  an  oath.  The  discon- 
tinuance of  this  custom  is  not  something  to  be 
deprecated,  but  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be 
wished.  The  custom  is  a  premium  upon  every- 
day lying.  It  cheapens  ordinary  veracity.  A  man's 
word  ought  to  be  as  good  as  his  oath.  Indeed,  we 
have  Jesus  himself  with  us  in  this  matter.  "  Swear 
not  at  all,"  he  said.  And  in  nine  hundred  and 
ninty-nine  cases  out  of  a  thousand  the  way  in 
which  oaths  are  administered  is  not  very  solemn 
or  impressive.  Religion  and  piety  are  degraded 
every  time  an  assessor  or  attorney  rattles  off  or 
mumbles  over  that  little  formula,  and  every  earnest 
person,  when  subjected  to  it,  must  wish  the  land 
well  rid  of  such  an  idle  superstition. 

That  our  government  is  in  some  things  implicitly 
Christian  and  Biblical  is  therefore  no  reason  why 
it  should  be  so  explicitly  in  all  things,  because  the 


308  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

implicit  things  are  either  not  indispensable,  or  can 
be  procured  in  other  ways.  The  question  still  re- 
mains :  Not  being  formally  and  explicitly  a  theistic 
or  Christian  government,  ought  it  to  be  made  either 
or  both  by  the  insertion  of  a  clause  to  that  effect 
in  the  preamble  to  the  Constitution? 

This  question  naturally  divides  itself  into  two 
others  :  What  right  have  we  to  do  this  ?  What 
good  would  come  of  it  ?  First,  what  right  have 
we  to  do  it  ?  As  much  right,  perhaps,  as  we  have 
to  tell  any  other  falsehood,  for  falsehood  it  would 
be,  unless  at  the  start  we  resign  the  idea  that  the 
government  represents  the  nation.  The  nation 
does  not  acknowledge  the  substance  of  the  pro- 
posed amendment.  There  are  thousands  of  men 
who  are  vital  members  of  the  nation  who  could 
not,  without  perjury,  express  allegiance  to  the 
Constitution  so  amended.  Of  the  six  men  who 
have  done  most  to  make  America  the  wonder  and 
the  joy  she  is  to  all  of  us,  not  one  could  be  the 
citizen  of  a  government  so  constituted  ;  for  Wash- 
ington and  Franklin  and  Jefferson,  certainly  the 
three  mightiest  leaders  in  our  early  history,  were 
heretics  in  their  day,  —  Deists,  as  men  called  them, 
—  and  Garrison  and  Lincoln  and  Sunmer,  certainly 
the  three  mightiest  in  these  later  times,  would  all 
be  disfranchised  by  the  proposed  amendment.  In 
vain  do  those  who  have  this  thing  at  heart  protest 
that  it  would  disfranchise  nobody.  It  may  do  very 
well  for  a  religious  denomination  to  put  a  creed- 
let  into  its  constitution,  and  then  put  in  another 


LIBERTY  AND   TIIE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    309 

article  declaring  that  it  is  binding  only  upon  those 
who  believe  in  it.  But  governments  do  not.  act 
in  that  way,  nor  do  I  hear  that  any  supplemental 
article  is  intended,  declaring  that  the  proposed 
amendment  expresses  the  opinion  of  the  majority. 
No  self-respecting  man  who  does  not  believe,  not 
merely  in  God,  but  in  the  lordship  and  deity  of 
Christ,  could  ever  pledge  his  fealty  to  this  govern- 
ment so  amended.  Lincoln  could  not  have  taken 
his  oath  of  office  had  such  a  clause  been  in  the 
Constitution.  If  as  a  nation  we  stand  for  any 
thing,  it  is  for  "  equal  rights  for  all ;  "  not  for  "  all 
white  men,"  not  for  all  Christians,  not  for  all  the- 
ists  even,  but  for  all.  To  make  the  Constitution 
theistic  even  would  be  to  expatriate  some  of  the 
best  men  in  the  country ;  not  men  who  are  athe- 
ists, but  men  who  think  they  are,  because  they 
cannot  accept  any  of  the  popular  definitions  of 
God,  or  cannot  even  define  Him  to  their  own  sat- 
isfaction. There  are  men  thus  minded  who  are 
among  the  best  in  the  community,  second  to  none 
in  their  enthusiasm  for  every  thing  that  looks  to 
the  improvement  of  society.  They  have  as  good 
a  right  to  their  position  as  the  bluest  Calvinist 
that  can  be  found.  There  is  more  genuine  religion 
in  their  silence  and  reserve  than  in  the  latter's  furi- 
ous boast.  I  do  not  suppose  that  such  men  would 
be  driven  out  of  the  country  bodily,  though  I  think 
I  know  of  some  of  them  who  would  rather  rehearse 
the  part  of  Robinson  Crusoe  than  remain  with  us 
physically  when  spiritually  cut  off,  —  with  us,  but 


310  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

not  of  us.  Equal  rights  for  all,  —  that  is  the  Amer- 
ican idea,  and  there  is  no  other  right  so  sacred  as 
the  right  to  one's  own  thought  upon  the  highest 
themes. 

But  the  wrong  that  would  be  done  by  the  pro- 
posed amendment  only  appears  when  we  remember 
that  it  proposes,  not  only  to  make  the  nation  for- 
mally theistic,  but  also  formally  Christian,  and  not 
merely  formally  Christian,  but  formally  evangelical. 
There  are  few  men  who  think  themselves  atheists, 
less  who  are  so  in  reality  (at  least  among  those 
who  are  so  professedly).  But  there  are  many  who 
think  themselves  non-Christian,  although  these  too, 
in  many  cases,  seem  to  me  Christian  in  the  highest 
sense  of  all.  There  are  thousands  of  Jews  among 
us,  and  not  a  few  persons  representative  of  other 
great  religions.  There  are  men  who  have  been 
Christians,  driven  by  the  tenderness  of  their  con- 
sciences and  the  force  of  private  reasons  to  give 
up  the  Christian  name.  There  are  thousands  more 
who  call  themselves  Christians,  and  yet  do  not 
believe  that  the  Bible  is  "  the  revealed  will "  of 
Jesus,  nor,  as  this  implies,  that  he  is  God.  Taking 
all  these  together  they  form  a  numerous  class,  who 
heretofore  have  been  American  citizens  by  right, 
but  would  be  only  by  sufferance  if  this  amendment 
should  prevail.  Nay,  they  would  not  be  citizens  at 
all,  but  only  inhabitants.  But  wiry  stop  at  evan- 
gelical Christianity?  Why  not  make  the  gov- 
ernment Calvmistic,  or  Methodist,  or  Baptist,  or 
Roman  Catholic  ?  The  logic  of  the  enterprise  de- 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    31 1* 

mands  that  every  sect  shall  try  to  outwit  all  the 
others,  and  if  possible  get  its  peculiar  creed  foisted 
upon  the  Constitution.  And  if  "  equal  rights  for 
all "  is  a  principle  to  be  discarded,  the  Roman 
Catholics  have  as  good  right  to  make  the  nation 
Roman  Catholic,  if  they  can,  as  the  Christians  have 
to  make  it  Christian.  If  might  makes  right,  then 
any  sect  has  a  right  to  do  any  thing  with  the  gov- 
ernment it  can  do.  If  non-Christians  have  no 
rights  that  Christians  are  bound  to  respect,  simply 
because  Christians  are  in  the  majority,  then,  the 
majority  being  the  other  way,  what  might  Chris- 
tians reasonably  expect  ?  "But  there  is  no  danger," 
you  say.  Truly  there  is  very  little.  But  when  Je- 
sus said,  "Do  unto  others  as  you  would  that  they 
should  do  unto  you,"  he  did  not  add,  if  I  remember 
rightly,  "  unless  you  know  that  you  will  always 
have  the  upper  hand." 

There  are  reasons  peculiar  to  America  why  there 
should  be  no  constitutional  preference  for  any 
particular  opinions.  De  Tocqueville  remarks  that 
there  is  always  a  tendency  in  forms  of  government 
and  forms  of  religion  occupying  the  same  territory 
to  find  the  same  level.  The  free  institutions  of 
America  have  fostered  freedom  of  thought  and 
ensured  a  much  greater  diversity  of  opinion  than 
exists  anywhere  else.  And  what  right  have  we 
to  foster  this  diversity  by  the  main  tenor  of  our  in- 
stitutions, and  then  by  special  enactment  make  it 
a  crime  against  the  State  ?  And  if,  here  in  Amer- 
ica, the  tyranny  of  the  majority  is  getting  to  be 


312  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

quite  unbearable,  that  only  shows  that  in  some 
way  minorities  must  be  represented  ;  and  when 
minorities  have  their  rights  in  politics  there  will 
be  less  color  for  the  maxim  that  religious  minori- 
ties have  no  rights  which  religious  majorities  are 
bound  to  respect.  The  only  justification  of  the 
proposed  amendment  resides  in  a  belief  in  the 
sacredness  of  majorities,  which  is  getting  largely 
undermined  and  will  soon  be  thoroughly  exploded. 
"  Government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for 
the  people  "  does  not  mean  "  government  of  all  the 
people  by  the  majority  and  for  the  majority." 

We  have  no  right  then,  because  the  nation  is 
not  actually  so,  to  make  the  government  formally 
theistic  or  Christian  or  evangelical.  If  we  had, 
what  good  would  come  of  it  ?  No  good  whatever. 
Because  "  In  God  we  trust "  is  stamped  upon  some 
of  our  coins,  has  that  phrase  any  alchemy  to  con- 
vert their  copper  into  gold  ?  Does  any  grocer  give 
better  sugar  for  them,  any  milkman  better  milk  ? 
By  no  means.  And  by  stamping  God  or  Christ 
upon  the  Constitution  we  shall  not  make  the  na- 
tion more  godly  or  more  Christian.  Nominal 
theism,  nominal  Christianity,  does  not  amount  to 
much.  The  worst  crimes  that  have  ever  been 
committed  have  been  committed  in  the  name  of 
God  and  Christianity.  King  Olaf  put  a  pan 
of  live  coals  upon  Eyvind's  naked  flesh  until  it 
broiled  beneath  them,  and  then  asked,  without  a 
thought  of  incongruity,  "Dost  thou  now,  O  Ey- 
vind,  believe  in  Christ  ?  "  When  Rome  was  one 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    313 

great  sink  of  horrible  debauchery,  there  was  no 
lack  of  nominal  religion.  Incestuous  popes  denied 
not  God  or  Christ.  There  was  never  more  formal 
recognition  of  God  than  in  the  time  of  George  II. 
of  England  ;  never  less  vital  recognition  of  his 
justice  and  his  truth.  Public  documents  were 
sprinkled  thick  with  compliments  to  him  :  public 
life  and  private  were  sprinkled  thicker  with  all 
possible  forms  of  vice.  History  will  bear  record 
that  in  our  civil  war  the  South  was  seemingly  much 
more  pious  than  the  North.  It  was  always  calling 
upon  God.  It  could  quote  Scripture  by  the  }^ard  to 
justify  its  slavery  and  its  secession.  General  Lee, 
for  all  his  treachery  and  cruelty,  considered  him- 
self a  Christian,  and  nominal  Christians  in  the 
North  allowed  his  claim. 

But  why  multiply  examples?  We  might  for- 
mally acknowledge  God  and  Christ  in  the  Consti- 
tution, and  not  a  man,  woman,  or  child  would 
believe  or  trust  in  either  any  more  afterward  than 
before.  Nay,  some  would  believe  less  and  trust 
less,  for  real  sanctities  are  always  jeoparded  by  in- 
sisting upon  things  as  real  and  important  which 
are  not  so.  From  the  top  of  a  new  Sinai  I  seem  to 
hear  the  old  commandment  thundered  with  a  new 
meaning  and  a  higher  than  it  had  of  old,  "  Thou 
shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in 
vain."  It  would  be  taking  it  in  vain  to  put  it  into 
the  Constitution,  there  to  be  exhibited,  like  a  fly 
in  amber,  —  a  striking  curiosity,  but  very  useless, 
very  dead. 


314  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

But  it  is  only  fair  to  ask  what  good  the  persons 
in  charge  of  this  matter  expect  to  be  derived  from 
it.  We  are  told  then,  in  the  first  place,  that  "  it 
will  be  a  becoming  act  of  homage  to  God."  It  ma}r 
well  be  doubted  whether  "  acts  of  homage  "  are  so 
highly  valued  by  the  Almighty  as  some  would  have 
us  to  believe.  The  phrase  is  somewhat  redolent 
of  anthropomorphism  in  its  grosser  forms.  Then, 
too,  the  desired  amendment  could  not  represent  the 
nation,  but  only  those  in  favor  of  it.  To  offer  it  to 
God  or  man  as  representative  of  the  nation  would 
be  a  lie.  It  would  never  represent  any  more  than 
those  accepting  it  at  any  given  time,  and  those 
would  need  no  such  representation.  Meantime  our 
sister  nations  will  judge  us,  not  by  our  professions, 
but  by  our  actions.  They  will  not  go  to  our  Con- 
stitution to  find  out  what  manner  of  men  we  are,  but 
to  our  particular  laws  and  customs,  to  our  treaties 
and  our  trade  :  were  the  Constitution  already  Chris- 
tian, they  would  think  just  the  same  of  our  claim 
for  consequential  damages,  thrust  into  the  Wash- 
ington treaty  like  the  cup  into  Benjamin's  sack. 

But  though  it  is  asserted,  when  convenient,  that 
the  new  amendment  is  to  be  only  a  King  Log,  and 
therefore  quite  harmless,  as  soon  as  its  movers 
begin  to  show  what  good  will  come  of  it,  King  Log 
becomes  King  Stork  right  speedily.  Not  as  an  act 
of  homage,  but  as  "  a  legal  basis  for  all  Christian 
laws,"  it  is  particularly  desired.  It  is  something  to 
have  it  acknowledged  that  these  so-called  Christian 
laws  have  at  present  no  legal  basis  in  our  national 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    315 

government.  What  is  now  really  desirable  is  to 
take  from  them  whatever  legal  basis  they  have  in 
the  various  States  of  the  Union.  For  what  are 
these  Christian  laws  and  institutions  for  which  a 
legal  basis  is  demanded  in  the  Constitution?  An 
advocate  of  the  amendment  answers,  "  Prayers  in 
our  legislatures,  occasional  days  of  fasting  and 
thanksgiving,  the  maintenance  of  chaplains  in  our 
army  and  navy,  in  prisons  and  asylums,  the  use  of 
the  Bible  in  our  public  schools,  the  religious  ordi- 
nance of  the  oath,  laws  guarding  the  sacredness  of 
the  Sabbath,  enforcing  the  Christian  law  of  mar- 
riage, and  suppressing  blasphemy  and  licentious- 
ness." Some  of  these  points  we  have  already 
considered,  and  found  that  the  Constitution  is 
nearer  right  than  the  customs  for  which  legal  sup- 
port is  demanded.  A  similar  conclusion  will  be 
forced  upon  us  if  we  turn  to  any  of  the  others. 
What,  for  example,  is  the  Christian  law  of  marriage 
that  it  should  have  a  legal  basis  in  the  Constitution  ? 
We  are  referred  to  the  New  Testament.  But  to 
what  part  of  the  New  Testament  ?  To  Paul's 
writings  ?  Then  marriage  is  permissible  only  as  a 
safety-valve  for  passion.  To  the  words  of  Jesus  ? 
But,  if  he  is  reported  correctly,  marriage  is  for  the 
weak  and  passionate  only,  not  for  the  strong  and 
pure.  Do  we  want  a  legal  basis  for  such  Christian 
laws  as  these  ?  But  by  the  law  of  marriage  the 
law  of  divorce  is  possibly  meant,  which,  in  the 
New  Testament,  is  that,  save  for  adultery,  no  man 
shall  be  divorced.  Do  we  want  a  legal  basis  for 


316  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

such  a  provision  as  that  ?  Does  profane  swearing 
call  for  a  constitutional  amendment?  How  much 
of  it  could  be  reached  by  legal  enactment  ?  Is  it 
not  rather  a  sin  against  taste  and  culture  than 
against  religion,  —  a  vulgarism  rather  than  a  crime  ? 
To  punish  it  legally  would  be  to  provoke  it  to  new 
and  grosser  exhibitions. 

Sabbath  laws  and  laws  concerning  the  Bible  in 
the  public  schools  remain  to  be  considered.  So  far 
as  the  first  are  concerned,  the  demand  which  is 
made  for  them  is  but  an  eddy  in  a  current  whose 
general  flow  is  all  the  other  way.  On  every  side 
Sabbath  laws  are  becoming  less  stringent  or  are 
less  and  less  regarded.  Public  libraries  are  being 
opened,  travel  is  being  less  curtailed,  there  is  more 
out-of-door  exercise  and  enjoyment.  Is  this  as  it 
should  be,  or  is  it  all  wrong,  and  must  it  be 
opposed  by  legislative  enactment  that  has  its  roots 
in  constitutional  law?  If  the  appeal  to  the  past 
were  final  or  specially  significant,  it  might  be  shown 
that  the  Puritan  Sabbath  is  itself  an  innovation ; 
that  the  Christian  Sunday  and  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
are  two  entirely  distinct  institutions  ;  that  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  after  the  birth  of  Christianity  work 
was  continued  on  the  seventh  day,  and  that,  for 
long  after  the  discontinuance  of  work,  amusement 
shared  with  worship  the  privileges  of  the  day.  But 
our  appeal  is  not  to  the  customs  of  the  past,  but 
to  the  needs  of  the  present.  Those  needs  point  to 
a  Sunday  free  from  all  government  restraints.  The 
day  cannot  be  desecrated  by  work  so  much  as  work 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.     317 

is  desecrated  by  Sabbatarian  distinctions.  Long 
may  the  day  survive  and  be  held  sacred  to  rest 
from  ordinary  cares,  to  earnest  thought  arid  tender 
recollection,  to  pure  and  simple  joys.  .But  let  us 
carry  its  foundations  down  below  the  sandy  soil  of 
superstition  and  tradition,  and  base  them  upon 
common  needs  and  aspirations  and  mutual  respect 
and  kindliness.  Let  its  consecration  no  longer  be 
the  desecration  of  the  week,  nor  Sunday  idleness  be 
esteemed  a  holier  thing  than  Monday  labor. 

By  far  the  most  vital  problem  in  connection 
•with  our  general  theme  is  that  relating  to  the 
presence  .of  the  Bible  in  our  public  schools.  The 
amendment  movement  was  a  very  feeble  spark 
until  the  Bible-in-school  question  fanned  it  into 
a  flame.  During  the  war  there  was  a  convention 
somewhere,  and  it  was  agreed  that  God  was  sore 
displeased  with  America.  But  why  ?  Because  of 
human  slavery  (they  did  see  that  that  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  it),  but  more  especially  because 
there  was  no  mention  of  him  in  the  Constitution. 
There  and  then  this  movement  originated,  but  not 
much  came  of  it  till  the  Bible  question  poured  its 
volume  into  it  as  the  Missouri  pours  the  volume  of 
its  muddy  waters  into  the  Mississippi.  The  pro- 
posed amendment  will  give  the  Bible  a  foothold  in 
the  organic  law  of  the  nation.  The  next  thing 
would  be  to  make  education  national,  and  then 
require  reading  of  the  Bible  in  every  school-house 
in  the  land.  This  sounds  remote,  certainly,  but  it 
were  better  not  to  wait  for  it  to  get  any  nearer  be- 
fore going  out  to  meet  it. 


318  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

The  principal  argument  against  the  exclusion 
of  the  Bible  from  the  public  schools  is  that  the 
Roman  Catholics  demand  it.  "  Shall  we  be  dic- 
tated to  by  Roman  Catholics  ?  "  But  if  they  are 
right  in  their  demand,  then  it  is  not  they  that  dic- 
tate, but  God  who  dictates  through  them.  They 
are  his  mouthpiece.  "  But  the  Catholics  will  not 
be  satisfied  with  the  exclusion  of  the  Bible.  What 
they  want  is  a  proportionate  part  of  the  school-tax 
to  educate  their  children  in  their  own  sectarian 
schools."  Granted.  And  the  only  ground  on  which 
we  can  refuse  them  that  is  the  exclusion  of  the 
Bible.  Keep  it,  and  their  demand  is  absolutely 
just.  Exclude  it,  and  they  will  have  no  excuse  for 
their  demand.  If  they  still  have  sectarian  schools, 
it  must  be  at  their  own  expense. 

The  presence  of  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools 
must  be  regarded  as  sectarian.  It  not  only  makes 
a  concession  in  favor  of  Christianity,  but  it  makes 
a  distinction  in  favor  of  Protestant  Christianity ; 
and  Protestantism  is  no  less  a  sect  because  it  is 
very  common  to  talk  about  this  matter  as  if  the 
whole  difference  between  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants was  the  difference  between  the  King  James 
and  the  Douay  versions  of  the  Bible.  But  in  fact 
it  is  the  smallest  part  of  it.  The  great  bulk  and 
weight  of  it  is  that  the  Catholic  believes  that  un- 
less interpreted  by  the  Church  the  Bible  is  a  per- 
nicious book.  He  believes  this  honestly.  In  view 
of  this  belief,  is  it  then  fair  to  force  upon  him  the 
Bible  in  a  translation  which  he  does  not  accept, 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.    319 

without  that  interpretation  which  he  believes  to 
be  essential  to  its  usefulness  ? 

But  the  amendment  people  do  not  stick  at  sec- 
tarianism. Why  should  they  ?  If  they  can  distin- 
guish in  favor  of  Christianity,  why  not  in  favor  of 
Protestantism,  or  any  other  ism  ?  The  very  thing 
they  propose  to  do  is  to  make  the  government 
Protestant,  Evangelical,  Puritan.  If  they  are  right, 
then  the  Bible  should  not  be  excluded.  But  then, 
certainly,  all  Catholics,  all  Jews,  and  all  persons 
averse  to  the  indiscriminate  use  of  the  Bible  in  the 
schools  ought  to  be  absolved  from  school-taxes. 
Thus  would  our  common-school  system  be  rent 
asunder.  The  amendment  people  cry,  "  It  is  in 
danger."  It  is,  from  their  temerity. 

"  In  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  union,"  reads 
the  first  line  of  the  Constitution.  If  ever  the  re- 
ligious amendment  is  adopted,  by  all  means  let  this 
first  line  be  expunged.  It  would  be  a  mockery  to 
have  it  there  any  longer.  Not  to  form  a  more  per- 
fect union  would  from  that  time  forward  be  the 
object  of  the  government,  but  to  breed  dissension 
and  rivalry  and  hate.  An  ever-increasing  multi- 
tude of  persons,  inhabitants  of  the  country,  but  not 
citizens  of  the  nation,  expatriated  by  the  new  de- 
parture, would  hang  upon  the  outskirts  of  the 
body  politic,  nursing  their  sense  of  wrong,  making 
it  necessary  for  the  government  in  self-defence  to 
drive  them  from  its  borders. 

"  To  establish  justice  "  was  the  second  object 
proposed  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitution.  Let 


320  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

this  also  be  expunged  if  ever  the  religious  amend- 
ment is  added,  for  after  that  this,  too,  would  be  a 
mockery.  For  what  justice  would  there  be  in  de- 
nationalizing thousands  of  persons  on  account  of 
beliefs  which  they  conscientiously  hold  ?  Persecu- 
tion is  a  Proteus  that  can  take  many  shapes,  but  its 
essence  is  the  same,  whether  it  punishes  with  wheel 
and  fagot,  or  with  civil  disabilities.  The  advocates 
of  this  new  amendment  are  the  spiritual  antitypes 
of  Calvin  and  Innocent  III. 

"  To  insure  domestic  tranquillity,"  proceeds  the 
present  preamble  of  the  Constitution.  Let  that, 
too,  be  expunged  if  ever  the  religious  amendment 
is  added.  That,  too,  would  be  a  mockery.  "  Whom 
the  gods  love,  tranquillity,"  would  dwell  with  us 
no  longer.  In  short,  there  can  be  no  compromise 
between  the  Constitution  and  the  government  as  it 
is,  and  the  Constitution  and  the  government  as  it 
is  proposed  to  make  them.  If  the  latter  is  all  right, 
the  former  is  all  wrong.  The  change  proposed 
would  be  nothing  less  than  a  fundamental  reorgani- 
zation of  the  government  on  a  sectarian  principle 
entirely  foreign  to  that  which  presided  over  its 
original  construction. 

A  government  is  one  thing,  and  a  nation  is  quite 
another ;  but  the  two  are  being  constantly  con- 
founded by  the  exponents  of  the  religious  amend- 
ment. A  government  is  not  even  an  accurate 
standard  of  any  sort  of  national  growth  and 
power.  Just  at  present  the  American  Constitution 
and  the  American  nation  are  both  a  good  deal 


LIBERTY  AND  THE  CHURCH  IN  AMERICA.     321 

better  than  the  American  government,  —  the  sum- 
total  of  its  official  dignities.  The  nation  is  the 
entire  mass  of  the  people.  No  constitutional 
amendment  can  adequately  express  the  amount 
or  character  of  its  religious  life.  For  these  are 
known  only  to  the  great  Searcher  of  hearts. 

To  put  God  into  the  Constitution  would  be 
one  thing,  and  to  put  him  into  the  nation  would 
be  quite  another.  The  name  God  is,  perhaps, 
sufficiently  common.  The  thing  God  might  well 
be  a  great  deal  commoner.  How  shall  we  put  God 
into  the  nation  ?  How  but  by  putting  more  of 
his  truth  and  justice  into  our  laws,  more  of  his 
righteousness  into  their  administration,  more  of 
his  holiness  into  the  individual  life  of  men  and 
women  ?  Blessed  is  that  nation  which  fulfils  the 
threefold  condition  on  which  God  incarnates  him- 
self in  it,  and  makes  it  his  all-glorious  dwelling- 
place.  The  experience  of  nearly  ninety  years  has 
justified  the  wisdom  of  the  fathers  in  the  general 
outlines  of  our  government.  Important  changes 
have  been  made,  and  others  are  still  necessary  in 
their  work ;  but  in  the  main  our  admiration  is 
continually  increased  for  the  calm  judgment  of 
those  mighty  men.  Surely  there  were  giants  in 
those  days.  Would  that  the  administration  of  the 
government  were  more  nearly  equal  to  its  organic 
law.  Here  is  a  field  for  earnestness  and  enthu- 
siasm and  systematic  reform.  Not  in  the  Bible, 
but  in  the  Koran,  do  I  find  a  sentence  that  best 

enunciates  the  great  need  of  the  hour.     It  reads : 

21 


322  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

"  A  ruler  who  appoints  a  man  to  office,  when 
there  is  in  his  dominions  another  man  better  quali- 
fied for  the  position,  sins  against  God  and  against 
the  State." 

But,  after  all,  the  great  thing  to  be  done  is  to 
sweeten  the  fountains  of  men's,  individual  and 
domestic  and  social  life.  Here  is  the  real  nation. 
Here  is  the  real  place  for  the  reformer's  work. 
The  laws  of  a  nation  may  for  a  long  time  remain 
superior  to  the  nation's  average  life,  but  the  admin- 
istration of  those  laws  must  pretty  nearly  symbolize 
the  general  moral  health  of  the  community.  What 
we  want  is  not  a  religious  amendment  of  the  Con- 
stitution, but  a  religious  amendment  of  men's 
lives ;  not  to  acknowledge  God  upon  parchment, 
but  on  the  fleshly  tablets  of  our  hearts.  Let  these 
things  be  done,  and  he  will  crave  no  other  recog- 
nition. The  kingdom  of  heaven  cometh  not  with 
observation. 

"  When  the  Church  is  social  worth, 
When  the  State  House  is  the  hearth, 
Then  the  perfect  state  is  come, 
The  Republican  at  home." 


THE  WORD  PHILANTHROPY.  323 


THE  WORD  PHILANTHROPY. 
BY  THOMAJS  WENTWOBTH  HIGGINSON. 

OOME  writer  on  philology  has  said  that  there  is 
**-r  more  to  be  learned  from  language  itself  than 
from  all  that  has  been  written  by  its  aid.  It  is 
often  possible  to  reconstruct  some  part  of  the 
moral  attitude  of  a  race,  through  a  single  word  of 
its  language ;  and  this  paper  will  have  no  other 
value  than  as  an  illustration  of  that  process. 

In  the  natural  sciences,  the  method  is  familiar. 
For  instance,  it  was  long  supposed  that  the  mam- 
moth and  the  cave-bear  had  perished  from  the 
earth  before  man  appeared.  No  argument  from 
the  occasional  intermixture  of  their  bones  with 
man's  was  quite  conclusive.  But  when  there  was 
dug  up  a  drawing  of  the  cave-bear  on  slate,  and 
a  rude  carving  of  the  living  mammoth,  mane  and 
all,  on  a  tusk  of  the  animal  itself,  then  doubt 
vanished,  and  the  question  was  settled.  Thoreau 
has  remarked  that  "  some  circumstantial  evidence 
may  be  very  strong,  as  where  you  find  a  live  trout 
in  the  milk-pan."  These  discoveries  in  palaeon- 
tology were  quite  as  conclusive. 

Now  what  is  true  in  palaeontology  is  true  in 
philology  as  well.  When  a  word  comes  into  exist- 
ence, its  meaning  is  carved  on  the  language  that 


324  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

holds  it ;  if  you  find  the  name  of  a  certain  virtue 
written  in  a  certain  tongue,  then  the  race  which 
framed  that  language  knew  that  virtue.  This 
may  be  briefly  illustrated  by  the  history  of  the 
word  "  Philanthropy." 

This  word,  it  is  known,  came  rather  late  into 
the  English  tongue.  When  the  Pilgrim  Fathers 
stepped  on  Plymouth  Rock,  in  1620,  though  they 
may  have  been  practising  what  the  word  meant, 
there  were  few  among  them  to  whom  its  sound 
was  familiar,  and  perhaps  none  who  habitually 
used  it.  It  is  not  in  Chaucer,  Spenser,  or  Shaks- 
peare.  It  is  not  even  in  the  English  Bible,  first 
published  in  1611 ;  and  the  corresponding  Greek 
word,  occurring  three  times  in  the  original,  is 
rendered  in  each  case  by  a  circumlocution.  It 
does  not  appear  in  that  pioneer  English  Diction- 
ary, Minsheu's  "  Guide  to  the  Tongues,"  first 
published  in  1617.  It  does  not  appear  in  the 
Spanish  Dictionary  of  the  same  Minsheu,  in  1623. 
But  two  years  later  than  this,  in  the  second 
edition  of  his"  Guide  to  the  Tongues"  (16*2.")), 
it  appears  as  follows,  among  the  new  words  dis- 
tinguished by  a  dagger :  — 

"  Philanthropic  ;  Humanitie,  a  loving  of  men." 
Then  follow  the  Greek  and  Latin  words,  as  sources 
of  derivation. 

This  is  the  first  appearance  in  print,  so  far  as 
my  knowledge  goes,  of  the  word  "  Philanthropic." 
But  Lord  Bacon,  publishing  in  the  same  year 
(1625)  his  essay  on  "  Goodness,  and  Goodness  of 


THE   WORD  PHILANTHROPY.  325 

Heart,"  —  the  thirteenth  of  the  series  of  his  essays, 
as  now  constituted,  and  occupying  the  place  of  an 
essay  on  "  Friendship,"  which  stood  thirteenth  in 
the  previous  editions,  —  uses  the  word  in  its  Greek 
form  only,  and  in  a  way  that  would  seem  to  indi- 
cate, but  for  the  evidence  of  Minsheu,  that  it  had 
not  yet  been  Anglicized.  His  essay  opens  thus: 
"  I  take  goodness  in  this  sense,  the  affecting  of  the 
weal  of  men,  which  is  what  the  Greeks  call  Philan- 
thropia  ;  and  the  word  Humanity,  as  it  is  used,  is 
a  little  too  light  to  express  it." 

The  next  author  who  uses  the  word  is  Jeremy 
Taylor.  It  is  true,  that  in  his  "  Holy  Dying  " 
(1651),  when  translating  the  dying  words  of  Cyrus 
from  Xenophon's  "  Cyropsedia,"  he  renders  the 
word  <f}i\dvdpa)Tro<i  "  a  lover  of  mankind,"  citing 
the  original  Greek  in  the  margin.1  But  in  Taylor's 
sermons,  published  two  years  later  (1G53),  there 
occur  the  first  instances  known  to  me,  after 
Minsheu,  of  the  use  of  the  Anglicized  word. 
Jeremy  Taylor  speaks  of  "  that  god-like  excel- 
lency, a  philanthropy  and  love  to  all  mankind  ;  " 
and  again,  of  "  the  philanthropy  of  God."  2  The 
inference  would  seem  to  be  that  while  this  word 
had  now  become  familiar,  at  least  among  men  of 
learning,  the  corresponding  words  "  philanthropic  " 
and  "philanthropist "  were  not  equally  well  known! 

1  Xen.  Cyrop.  viii.  7.  25.    Taylor's  Holy  Dying,  c.  ii.  §  3,  par.  2. 

2  Taylor's  Sermons,  Vol.  III.     Sermons  1  and  11.     (Cited  in 
Richardson's  Dictionary.)    In  his  sermon  entitled  Via  Intelligentice, 
he  quotes  the  Greek  adjective,  translating  it  "  gentle." 


326  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

If  they  had  been,  Jeremy  Taylor  would  probably 
have  used  either  the  one  or  the  other,  in  trans- 
lating the  words  attributed  to  Cyrus. 

So  slowly  did  the  word  take  root,  indeed,  that 
when  so  learned  a  writer  as  Dryden  used  it,  nearly 
seventy  years  after  Minsheu,  he  still  did  it  with  an 
apology,  and  with  especial  reference  to  the  Greek 
author  on  whom  he  was  commenting.  For  when, 
in  1693,  Sir  Henry  Steere  published  a  poor  trans- 
lation of  Polybius,  and  Dryden  was  employed  to 
write  the  preface,  he  said: — 

"  This  philanthropy  (which  we  have  not  a  proper 
word  in  English  to  express)  is  everywhere  mani- 
fest in  our  author,  and  from  hence  proceeded  that 
divine  rule  which  he  gave  to  Scipio,  that  whenso- 
ever he  went  abroad  he  should  take  care  not  to 
return  to  his  house  before  he  had  acquired  a 
friend  by  some  new  obligement." 

We  have,  then,  three  leading  English  writers  of 
the  seventeenth  century  —  Bacon,  Taylor,  Dryden 
—  as  milestones  to  show  how  gradually  this  word 
"  philanthropy "  became  established  in  our  lan- 
guage. To  recapitulate  briefly  :  Bacon  uses  the 
original  Greek  word,  spelt  in  Roman  characters, 
and  attributes  it  to  "  the  Grecians,"  saying  that 
there  is  no  English  equivalent ;  Taylor,  twenty- 
eight  years  later,  uses  it  in  Anglicized  form,  with- 
out apology  or  explanation,  although  when  quoting 
and  translating  the  Greek  word  fytiuivOpwiros,  he 
does  not  use  the  equivalent  word  in  his  transla- 
tion. Dryden,  forty  years  later,  commenting  on  a 


THE  WORD  PHILANTHROPY.  327 

• 

Greek  author,  makes  a  sort  of  apology  for  the 
use  of  the  word,  as  representing  something  "  which 
we  have  not  a  proper  word  in  English  to  express," 
although  he  uses  the  English  form.  It  is  therefore 
clear  that  the  word  "  philanthropy "  was  taken 
directly  and  consciously  from  the  Greek,  for  want 
of  a  satisfactory  English  word.  Men  do  not  take 
the  trouble  to  borrow  a  word,  any  more  than  an 
umbrella,  if  they  already  possess  one  that  will  an- 
swer the  purpose. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  original  word  <f)i\av- 
Opwn-ia.  It  has  an  illustrious  position  in  Greek 
literature  •  and  history.  It  affords  the  key-note 
to  the  greatest  dramatic  poem  preserved  to  us; 
and  also  to  the  sublimest  life  of  Greece,  that 
of  Socrates.  It  was  first  used,  however,  in  neither 
of  these  connections,  but  by  an  obscurer  writer, 
Epicharmus,  whose  fragments  have  a  peculiar 
historical  value,  as  he  was  born  about  540  B.C., 
and  his  authority  thus  carries  back  the  word  nearly 
to  the  First  Olympiad,  776  B.C.,  which  is  com- 
monly recognized  as  the  beginning  of  authentic 
history.  Setting  these  fragments  aside,  however, 
the  first  conspicuous  appearance  of  the  word  in 
literature  is  in  that  astonishing  poem,  the  "Pro- 
metheus Bound"  of  JEschylus,  which  was  prob- 
ably represented  about  460  B.C.  as  the  central 
play  of  a  "  trilogy,"  the  theme  being  an  ideal 
hero,  on  whom  the  vengeance  of  Zeus  has  fallen 
for  his  love  of  man.  The  word  we  seek  occurs 
in  the  first  two  speeches  of  the  drama,  where 


328  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

• 

Strength  and  Hephaistos  (Vulcan)  in  turn  in- 
form Prometheus  that  he  is  to  be  bound  to  the 
desert  rock  in  punishment  for  his  philanthropy, 
(f>i\avdpo)7rov  rpoTrov',  and  it  is  repeated  later,  in 
the  most  magnificent  soliloquy  in  ancient  litera- 
ture, where  Prometheus  accepts  the  charge,  and 
glories  in  his  offence,  of  too  much  love  for  man, 
rrjv  \iav  <f>i\oTr)Ta  fiporwv.  He  admits  that  when 
Zeus  had  resolved  to  destroy  the  human  race,  and 
had  withdrawn  from  men  the  use  of  fire,  he  himself 
had  reconveyed  fire  to  them,  and  thus  saved  them 
from  destruction ;  that  he  had  afterwards  taught 
them  to  tame  animals,  to  build  ships,  to  observe  the 
stars,  to  mine  for  metals,  to  heal  diseases.  For 
this  he  was  punished  by  Zeus  ;  for  this  he  defies 
Zeus,  and  predicts  that  his  tyranny  must  end,  and 
justice  be  done.  On  this  the  three  tragedies  turn  ; 
the  first  showing  Prometheus  as  carrying  the 
sacred  gift  of  fire  to  men  ;  the  second  as  chained 
to  Caucasus ;  the  third  as  delivered  from  his 
chains.  If  we  had  the  first  play,  we  should  have 
the  virtue  of  philanthropy  exhibited  in  its  details  ; 
if  we  had  the  last,  we  should  see  its  triumph  ;  but 
in  the  remaining  tragedy  we  see  what  is,  perhaps, 
nobler  than  either,  —  the  philanthropic  man  under 
torment  for  his  self-devotion,  but  refusing  to  regret 
what  he  has  done.  There  is  not  a  play  in  modern 
literature,  I  should  say,  which  turns  so  directly 
and  completely,  from  beginning  to  end,  upon  the 
word  and  the  thing  "  philanthropy." 
Seeking,  now,  another  instance  of  the  early  use  of 


THE   WORD  PHILANTHROPY.  329 

the  Greek  word,  and  turning  from  the  ideal  to  the 
actual,  we  have  Socrates,  in  the  "Euthyphron"  of 
Plato, —  composed  probably  about  400  B.C.  —  ques- 
tioned as  to  how  it  is  that  he  has  called  upon  him- 
self the  vengeance  of  those  in  power  by  telling 
unwelcome  truths.  And  when  his  opponent  hints 
that  he  himself  has  never  got  into  any  serious  trou- 
ble, Socrates  answers,  in  that  half-jesting  way  which 
he  never  wholly  lays  aside — I  quote  Jowett's  trans- 
lation :  — 

"  I  dare  say  that  you  don't  make  yourself  com- 
mon, and  are  not  apt  to  impart  your  wisdom.  But 
I  have  a  benevolent  habit  of  pouring  myself  out  to 
everybody,  and  would  even  pay  for  a  listener,  and 
I  am  afraid  that  the  Athenians  know  this."  The 
phrase  rendered  "  benevolent  habit "  is  airo  (j>i\av- 
Opwrrlas  ; 1  that  is,  "  through  philanthropy  ;  "  and 
I  know  nowhere  a  franker  glimpse  of  the  real 
man  Socrates. 

Coming  down  to  later  authors,  we  find  the  use 
of  the  word  in  Greek  to  be  always  such  as  to 
bring  out  distinctly  that  meaning  for  which  it  has 
been  imported  into  English.  How  apt  we  are  to 
say  that  the  Greeks  thought  only  of  the  state,  not  of 
individuals,  nor  of  the  world  outside  !  Yet  the  great 
orator  Isocrates  (borii  436  B.  c.)  heaps  praises  upon 
a  certain  person  as  being  one  who  loved  man  and 
Athens  and  wisdom,  —  <j)i\dvdpa>7ros  KOI  <j)i\adrjvato<i 
KOI  <£i\6cro(£o<?,  —  a  noble  epitaph. 

So  the  orator  Demosthenes  (born  385  B.  c.)  uses 
1  Plato  :  Euthijph.  §  3.  Jowett's  Plato,  I.  286. 


330  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 


the  word  fyikavOpwrria  in  contrast  to  <£>$oi>o<?,  hate, 
and  to  00/10x779,  cruelty  ;  and  speaks  of  employing 
philanthropy  toward  any  one  fyikavOpwrriav  TLV\ 
Xpfjadai.  So  Xenophon,  as  we  have  seen,  makes 
Cyrus  describe  himself  on  his  death-bed  as  "  phil- 
anthropic." 

So  Epictetus,  at  a  later  period,  said,  "  Nothing  is 
meaner  than  the  love  of  pleasure,  the  love  of  gain, 
and  insolence  ;  nothing  nobler  than  magnanimity, 
meekness,  and  philanthropy."  So  Plutarch,  ad- 
dressing his  "  Consolations  to  Apollonius"  on 
the  death  of  his  son,  sums  up  the  praises  of  the 
youth  by  calling  him  "  philanthropic,"  —  $i\dv6pa>- 
7T09.  In  his  life  of  Solon,  also,  he  uses  the  word 
<f>t,\avOp(i)'Trevfia,  —  a  philanthropic  act.  So  Diodorus 
speaks  of  a  desert  country  as  ^(jreprj^ev^  Trdcrrjs 
tf>i\av0pG>Tria<;,  —  destitute  of  all  philanthropy,  or, 
as  we  should  say,  "  pitiless,"  —  as  if  wherever 
man  might  be  there  would  also  be  the  love  of 
man.1 

We  have,  then,  a  virtue  called  philanthropy,  which 
dates  back  nearly  six  hundred  years  before  our  era, 
and  within  about  two  centuries  of  the  beginning 
of  authentic  history,  —  a  virtue  which  inspired  the 
self-devotion  of  Prometheus  in  the  great  tragedy 
of  antiquity  ;  which  prompted  the  manner  of  life 
of  Socrates  ;  to  which  Demosthenes  appealed,  in 
opposition  to  hate  and  cruelty  ;  to  which  Isoc- 

1  Isoc.  Epist.  v.  2  ;  Dem.  adv.  Leptines,  §  165  ;  Xen.  Cyrop. 
viii.  7.25;  Epict.  Frag.  46;  Plut.  Cons.  §  34,  Solon,  §  15;  Diod. 
xvii.  50- 


THE   WORD  PHILANTHROPY.  331 

rates  gave  precedence  before  the  love  of  country 
and  the  love  of  knowledge  ;  which  Potybius 
admired,  when  shown  toward  captives ;  which 
Epictetus  classed  as  the  noblest  of  all  things ;  and 
which  Plutarch  inscribed  as  the  highest  praise  upon 
the  epitaph  of  a  noble  youth.  Thus  thoroughly 
was  the  word  "  philanthropy  "  rooted  in  the  Greek 
language,  and  recognized  by  the  Greek  heart ;  and 
it  is  clear  that  we,  speaking  a  language  in  which 
this  word  was  unknown  for  centuries,  —  being  in- 
troduced at  last,  according  to  Dryden,  because 
there  was  no  English  word  to  express  the  same 
idea,  —  cannot  claim  the  virtue  it  expresses  as  an 
exclusively  modern  possession. 

It  is  worth  noticing,  that  there  is  another  use  of 
the  word  "philanthropy,"  which  prevailed  among 
the  Greeks,  and  was  employed  for  a  time  in  Eng- 
lish. The  word  was  used  to  express  an  attribute 
of  Deity,  as,  for  instance,  when  Aristophanes  ap- 
plies it  to  Hermes,  fl  ^C^avdpwjrore  "  O !  most 
philanthropic"  —  that  is,  loving  towards  man. 
Paul  uses  the  Greek  word  but  once,  and  then 
in  this  same  sense ;  and  the  Greek  Father  Ath- 
anasius  uses  it  as  a  term  of  courtesy,  '  H  arf 
(f)i\av0pa)7ria  "  Your  philanthrop}7,"  as  we  say  to 
Republican  governors, "  Your  Excellency."  Young, 
in  his  "  Night  Thoughts,"  addresses  the  Deity, 
"  Thou  great  Philanthropist ; "  Jeremy  Taylor 
speaks  of  "  the  philanthropy  of  God ;  "  and  Barrow, 
speaking  of  the  goodness  of  God,  says,  "  Commonly 
also  it  is  by  the  most  obliging  and  endearing  name 


332  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

called  love  and  philanthropy."  1  But  I  do  not  re- 
call any  recent  instances  of  this  use  of  the  word. 

And  the  use  of  this  word,  in  this  sense,  by  the 
Greeks,  reminds  us  that  the  Greek  religion,  even 
if  deficient  in  the  loveliest  spiritual  results,  had 
on  the  other  hand  little  that  was  gloomy  or 
terrifying.  Thus  the  Greek  funeral  inscriptions, 
though  never  so  triumphant  as  the  Christian, 
were  yet  almost  always  marked,  as  Milman  has 
pointed  out,  by  a  "  quiet  beauty."  And  this 
word  "  philanthropy "  thus  did  a  double  duty, 
including  in  its  range  two  thoughts,  familiar  to 
modern  times  in  separate  phrases,  —  the  Father- 
hood of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man. 

It  is  to  this  consideration,  I  fancy,  that  we  owe 
those  glimpses  not  merely  of  general  philanthropy, 
but  of  a  recognized  unity  in  the  human  race,  that 
we  find  from  time  to  time  in  ancient  literature. 
It  is  hardly  strange  that  in  Greece,  with  its 
isolated  position,  its  exceptional  cultivation  and 
refinement,  and  its  scanty  communications,  this 
feeling  should  have  been  less  prominent  than  in 
a  world  girdled  with  railways  and  encircled  by 
telegraphic  wires.  In  those  days  the  great  ma- 
jority of  men,  and  women  almost  without  excep- 
tion, spent  their  lives  within  the  limit  of  some 
narrow  state ;  and  it  was  hard  for  the  most  en- 
lightened to  think  of  those  beyond  their  borders 

1  Aristoph.  Peace,  394.  Paul,  Titus  iii.  4.  Athanasius,  cited 
in  Sophocles's  Lexicon.  Young,  Night  Fourth.  Taylor,  Vol.  III., 
Sermon  11  (Richardson).  Barrow,  Vol.  II.,  p.  356  (ed.  1700). 


TEE   WORD   PHILANTHROPY.  333 

except  as  we  think  even  now  of  the  vast  popula- 
tions of  South  America  or  Africa,  —  whom  ^we 
regard  as  human  beings,  no  doubt,  but  as  having 
few  habits  or  interests  in  common  with  our  own. 
But  every  great  conquest  by  Greece  or  Rome 
tended  to  familiarize  men  with  the  thought  of  a 
community  of  nations,  even  before  a  special  stim- 
ulus was  at  last  added  by  Christianity.  It  does 
not  seem  to  me  just,  therefore,  in  Max  Miiller  to 
say  that  "  humanity  is  a  word  for  which  you  look 
in  vain  in  Plato  or  Aristotle,''  without  pointing 
out  that  later  Greek  writers,  utterly  uninfluenced 
by  Christianity,  made  the  same  objection  to  these 
authors.  Thus,  in  an  essay  attributed  to  Plutarch 
on  the  Fortune  of  Alexander,  he  makes  this  re- 
markable statement:  — 

"  Alexander  did  not  hearken  to  his  preceptor 
Aristotle,  who  advised  him  to  bear  himself  as  a 
prince  among  the  Greeks,  his  own  people,  but  as  a 
master  among  the  Barbarians ;  to  treat  the  one  as 
friends  and  kinsmen,  the  others  as  animals  or  chat- 
tels. .  .  But,  conceiving  that  he  was  sent  by  God  to 
be  an  umpire  between  all  and  to  unite  all  together, 
he  reduced  by  arms  those  whom  he  could  not  con- 
quer by  persuasion,  and  formed  of  a  hundred 
diverse  nations  one  single  universal  body,  mingling, 
as  it  were,  in  one  cup  of  friendship  the  customs, 
the  marriages,  and  the  laws  of  all.  He  desired  that 
all  should  regard  the  whole  world  as  their  common 
country,  the  good  as  fellow-citizens  and  brethren, 
the  bad  as  aliens  and  enemies;  that  the  Greeks 


334  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

should  no  longer  be  distinguished  from  the  for- 
eigner by  arms  or  costume,  but  that  every  good 
man  should  be  esteemed  an  Hellene,  every  evil 
man  a  barbarian."  * 

Here  we  have  not  a  piece  of  vague  sentimen- 
talism,  but  the  plan  attributed  by  tradition  to  one 
of  the  great  generals  of  the  world's  history ;  and 
whether  this  was  Alexander's  real  thought,  or  some- 
thing invented  for  him  by  biographers,  it  is  equally 
a  recognition  of  the  brotherhood  of  man.  And  the 
same  Plutarch  tells  us  that  "  the  so  much  admired 
commonwealth  of  Zeno,  first  author  of  the  Stoic 
sect,  aims  singly  at  this,  that  neither  in  cities  nor  in 
towns  we  should  live  under  laws  distinct  from  one 
another,  but  that  we  should  look  on  all  men  in 
general  to  be  our  fellow-countrymen  and  citizens, 
observing  one  manner  of  living  and  one  kind  of 
order,  like  a  flock  feeding  together  with  equal 
right  in  one  common  pasture."2  So  Jamblichus 
reports  that  Pythagoras,  five  centuries  before  our 
era,  taught "  the  love  of  all  to  all ;  "  3  and  Menander 
the  dramatist  said,  "  to  live  is  not  to  live  for  one's 
self  alone  ;  let  us  help  one  another ;  "  4  and  later, 
Epictetus  maintained  that  "  the  universe  is  but 
one  great  city,  full  of  beloved  ones,  divine  and 

1  Merivale's    translation:     Conversion    of  the    Roman    Empire, 
p.  64.    He  also  gives  the  original,  p.  203.     Compare  Goodwin's 
Plutarch,  I.  481. 

2  Plutarch's  Morals.     Goodwin's  translation,  I.  481. 

8  Jamblichi  de  Pythag.  vita,  cc.  16.  33.     <t>tAt'av  de  8ia$av£araTa 

npbf  unavTaf  Uv&apopae  irapeduKe. 
*  Meineke :  Fragmenta  Com.  Graec. 


THE  WORD  PHILANTHROPY.  335 

human,  by  nature  endeared  to  each  other ;  " 1  and 
Marcus  Antoninus  taught  that  we  must  "  love 
mankind."  2  In  none  of  these  passages  do  we  find 
the  Greek  word  fyiXavOpayjria ;  but  in  all  we  find 
the  noble  feeling  indicated  by  that  word ;  while 
Aulus  Gellius  quotes  the  word  itself,  and  attaches 
to  it  the  self-same  meaning  borne  by  the  English 
word.3 

And  it  is  well  known  that  the  same  chain  of  tra- 
dition runs  through  the  Latin  writers,  as  when 
Terence  brought  down  the  applause  of  the  theatre 
by  saying,  "  Homo  sum  ;  humani  nihil  a  me  alienum 
puto ; "  4  and  Cicero  says,  "  we  are  framed  by  nature 
to  love  mankind  (naturd  propensi  sumus  ad  dili- 
gendos  homines')  ;  this  is  the  foundation  of  law ; " 
and  Lucan  predicts  a  time  when  all  laws  shall 
cease  and  nations  disarm  and  all  men  love  one 
another  (inque  vicem  gens  omnis  amet*)  ;  and  Quiii- 
tilian  teaches  that  we  should  "give  heed  to  a 
stranger  in  the  name  of  the  universal  brotherhood 
which  binds  together  all  men  under  the  common 
father  of  Nature  ;  "  and  Seneca  says  that  "  we  are 
members  of  one  great  body,"  and  "  born  for  the 

1  Epictetus,  III.  24. 

2  Marcus  Antoninus,  VII.  31.     fy'ikitaav  rbv  avOpumvov  -yevof. 

3  Aulus  Gellius,  XIII.  xvi.  1.     "  Quodque  a  Graecis  <[>i?Mv6punia 
dicitur,  et  significat  dexteritatem  quandam  benevolentiamque  erga 
omnes  homines  promiscuam." 

*  Terence  :  Heaut.  I.  1.  25.  Cicero  de  Legibus,  I.  15,  and  de 
Eepub.  III.  7.  7  (fragm).  Lucan  :  Pharsalia,  I.  60-1.  Quintilian  : 
Declamations,  quoted  by  Denis.  Seneca,  Ep.  95.  Juvenal :  Sat. 
XV.  140-2. 


336  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

good  of  the  whole ; "  and  Juvenal,  that  "  mutual 
sympathy  is  what  distinguishes  us  from  brutes." 

Shall  we  think  the  better  or  the  worse  of  the 
Greeks  for  having  no  noun  substantive  just  cor- 
responding to  our  word  "philanthropist,"  whether 
as  a  term  of  praise  or  reproach  ?  With  us,  while 
it  should  be  the  noblest  of  all  epithets,  it  is  felt 
in  some  quarters  to  carry  with  it  a  certain  slight 
tinge  of  suspicion,  as  is  alleged  of  the  word  "  Dea- 
con" or  "  Christian  Statesman."  There  is  a  peril  in 
the  habit  of  doing  good  ;  I  do  not  mean  merely  in 
case  of  hypocrisy ;  but  I  have  noticed  that  when  a 
man  feels  that  he  is  serving  his  fellow-men,  he 
sometimes  takes  great  liberties  in  the  process.  It 
was  of  this  style  of  philanthropists  that  old  Count 
Gurowski  spoke,  when  he  cautioned  a  young  lady 
of  my  acquaintance,  above  all  things,  against 
marrying  one  of  that  class.  "  Marry  thief !  "  he 
said,  "  Marry  murderer !  But  marry  philantrope 
never-r-r  !  " 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  while  the  generous 
word  "  philanthropy "  was  thus  widely  used  in 
Greek  and  widely  spread  in  English,  there  should 
have  been  no  such  wide-spread  word  for  the 
answering  sin,  self-love.  The  word  (j>i\avrla  was 
known  to  the  Greeks,  and  a  word,  "  philauty," 
was  made  from  it,  in  English;  and  <j>i\avros  is 
used  once  in  the  New  Testament  by  Paul ; l  but  in 
neither  language  did  it  become  classic  or  familiar. 
Minsheu  has  "  philautie "  in  his  second  edition, 
1  2  Timothy,  iii.  2. 


THE   WORD  PHILANTHROPY.  337 

and  Beaumont,  in  his  poem  of  "  Psyche  ;  "  and 
Holinshed,  in  his  "  Chronicle  "  (1577),  speaks  of 
philautie  "  or  "  self-love,  which  rageth  in  men  so 
preposterouslie."  But  the  word  is  omitted  from  most 
English  dictionaries,  and  we  will  hope  that  the  sin 
rages  less  "  preposterouslie  "  now.  I  once  heard 
a  mother  say  that  if  she  could  teach  her  little  boy 
good  words  one-half  as  easily  as  he  could  learn  the 
bad  ones  for  himself,  she  should  be  quite  satisfied. 
Here  is  the  human  race,  on  the  other  hand,  seizing 
eagerly  on  the  good  word,  transplanting  it  and 
keeping  it  alive  in  the  new  soil,  while  the  bad 
word  dies  out,  unregretted.  In  view  of  this,  we 
may  well  claim  that  our  debt  to  the  Greek  race 
is  not  merely  scientific  or  aesthetic,  but,  in  some 
degree,  moral  and  spiritual  also.  However  va"st 
may  be  the  spread  of  human  kindliness  in  Chris- 
tendom, we  should  yet  give  to  the  Greeks  some 
credit  for  the  spirit  of  philanthropy,  as  we  are 
compelled,  at  any  rate,  to  give  them  full  credit  for 
the  word. 


22 


338  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 


RELIGION  AS   SOCIAL  FORCE. 
BY  EDNAH  D.  CHENEY. 

T  AM  to  speak  in  this  address  of  Religion  as  a 
•*•  Social  Force,  especially  in  relation  to  Philan- 
thropy and  Reform.  The  very  utterance  of  my 
subject  seems  a  sufficient  argument ;  for  the  rela- 
tion of  religion  to  philanthropy  is  as  natural  as 
that  of  the  mother  to  the  child.  How  can  I  sep- 
arate religion  from  life  ?  It  is  everywhere,  as 
diffusive,  as  necessary  as  the  air  that  we  breathe. 
Religion  is  our  word  for  the  relation  of  the  mortal 
to  the  immortal,  of  the  finite  to  the  infinite,  of  the 
human  to  the  divine.  It  is  the  essence  and  main- 
spring of  life,  and  must  be  the  moving,  vital  power 
in  all  love  of  men,  which  is  philanthropy,  and  all 
desire  of  progress,  which  is  reform.  As  well 
might  we  expect  all  this  fair  work  of  nature  — 
every  tree  and  shrub  putting  forth  into  new  life 
and  beauty  —  to  be  accomplished  without  looking 
upwards  to  the  sun,  and  drinking  in  his  warmth 
and  light,  as  imagine  that  humanity  will  bud 
and  blossom  without  constant  influx  from  its 
Divine  Centre. 

Religion  is  the  very  spirit  of  our  daily  life, 
animating  all  that  we  are  and  do.  The  ancients 
rightly  used  the  term  "  pious  "  alike  to  express  the 


RELIGION  AS  SOCIAL  FORCE.  339 

reverence  given  to  human  beings  and  that  due  to 
the  gods.  Every  hero  of  humanity  believes  him- 
self to  be  inspired  by  Divine  light  and  protected 
by  Divine  power,  and  there  is  no  great  movement 
in  history  which  does  not  find  in  religion  its  source 
and  guide.  Pious  JEneas  went  forth  from  Troy 
into  Latium,  trusting  in  the  protection  of  the  gods, 
even  as  Abraham  went  from  the  land  of  Ur  into 
Canaan  at  the  command  of  the  Lord.  This  is  the 
grand  idea  of  Hebrew  legislation,  which  gives  to 
every  rule  of  life  the  sanction  of  Divine  authority. 
The  sanitary  measures  rendered  necessary  by  their 
climate  and  mode  of  life  had  to  the  Jews  the  force 

of  Divine  command. 

* 

The  day  of  rest  for  man  and  beast  was  so  guarded 
by  this  sanction  that  three  thousand  years  have 
hardly  lessened  its  authority,  and  reason  has  a  hard 
struggle  even  now  against  the  tyranny  of  its  super- 
stitious observance.  The  same  religious  sanction, 
modified  according  to  the  genius  of  the  people, 
made  the  authority  of  Greek,  Roman,  and  Moham- 
medan power.  The  Turk  believes  that  the  prayer 
of  the  faithful  must  be  perpetual ;  that  if  a  moment 
passes  in  which  the  word  "  Allah  "  is  not  breathed 
out  into  the  air  with  pious  fervor,  the  reign  of  chaos 
will  come  again,  and  "  all  this  goodly  frame,  the 
earth,  this  most  excellent  canopy,  the  air,  this 
brave,  overhanging  firmament,  this  majestical  roof 
fretted  with  golden  fire,  will  become  a  foul  and 
pestilent  congregation  of  vapors." 

The    Turk  is  right :  there  is  no  safety  for  the 


340  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

outward  world,  none  for  the  State,  none  for  society, 
or  our  daily  household  life,  but  in  religion.  —  that 
is,  in  the  constant  relation  of  every  thing  human 
to  the  Divine,  the  perpetual  refreshment  and 
recreation  from  the  source  of  all  life.  Like  the 
air,  religion  must  be  alwa}rs  a  new  and  living  force, 
never  cut  off  from  its  primal  source,  but  always 
renewed  by  free  access  to  the  whole  unlimited 
range  of  Divine  life.  ""Get  religion,'"  and  bottle 
it  up  :  it  is  stale  as  tho  air  which  is  confined  with- 
out renewal. 

And  yet  religion,  the  great  oonserver  of  life  and 
humanity,  is  also  the  great  iconoclast  and  destroyer. 
It  is  a  flaming  fire  which  burns  up  whatever  has 
not  living  force  within  itself  to  withstand  it. 
Again,  it  is  like  the  air,  the  breath  and  life  of 
whatever  is  living  and  growing,  the  great  de- 
stroyer of  all  that  is  dead.  It  will  suffer  nothing 
useless  or  stationary  under  its  influence :  it  will 
make  either  better  or  worse  all  that  is  submitted 
to  its  action.  Religion,  which  is  the  very  breath 
of  life  to  true  humanity,  to  real  progress,  is  the 
radical  foe  of  all  old  idols  and  dead  traditions. 
Like  life,  it  is  constantly  expressing  itself  in  forms, 
but  yet  ever  freeing  itself  from  them. 

Hence  it  is,  that  while  every  one  accepts  the 
religious  origin  and  basis  of  reforms  in  the  past, 
the  reformer  finds  no  enemy  so  bitter,  no  inertia 
so  sluggish,  no  resistance  so  obstinate  as  that  from 
organized  ecclesiasticism.  It  is  the  history  of  all 
reform  from  the  prophets  stoned  in  Judea  and  the 


RELIGION  AS  SOCIAL  FORCE.  341 

martyr  crucified  on  Calvary,  from  Socrates  drink- 
ing the  hemlock  in  prison  to  Lovejoy  murdered  in 
Alton,  that  it  must  contend  to  the  death  with  the 
old  and  traditional  church. 

It  is  here,  then,  that  we  claim  the  superiority 
for  the  free  religious  movement  in  its  relation  to 
reform.  It  is  religion  restored  to  its  native  freedom, 
answerable  to  its  own  consciousness  of  God  alone, 
unfettered  by  tradition,  unrestrained  by  formulas 
and  creeds,  able  to  expand  itself  to  its  utmost 
limits,  free  to  flow  into  every  channel  that  is  open 
to  it,  gathering  help  and  counsel  from  all,  binding 
chains  upon  none.  It  is  religion,  like  Pegasus 
unharnessed  from  the  yoke,  that  must  inspire  us 
with  new  life  and  strength  to  battle  against  the 
forces  of  evil,  the  great  army  of  negation,  em- 
bodied in  corrupt  and  oppressive  institutions. 

Free  religion  can  accept  this  work,  because  she 
has  no  hindrances  in  the  way.  She  has  no  old 
institutions  venerable  in  their  decay,  which  will 
crumble  into  dust  at  the  movement  of  reform. 
The  ecclesiastical  historian,  Eusebius,  allows  that 
he  only  mentions  what  will  reflect  credit  on  the 
martyrs,  and  Millner  makes  the  same  confession 
in  regard  to  the  Church ;  but  free  religion  is  no 
hired  advocate  with  a  cause  to  defend.  She  can 
rejoice  in  a  brave  deed  done  anywhere,  and  accept 
the  truth  by  whomsoever  spoken.  So  her  armory 
against  evil  is  rich  in  weapons,  forged  by  all  true 
souls  of  whatever  name,  and  she  is  never  afraid 
that  they  will  be  turned  against  herself ;  for  she  is 


342  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

baptized  all  over  in  the  waters  of  immortality,  and 
has  not  even  a  vulnerable  point  in  her  heel  where 
the  arrows  of  truth  can  wound  her. 

I  shall  speak  now  of  only  two  points  in  which 
free  religion  has  a  special  advantage  and  superior 
power  over  the  old  organized  forms  of  religion  in 
promoting  reform  and  doing  the  work  of  philan- 
thropy. It  must  be  the  task,  not  of  a  brief  half- 
hour,  but  of  many  years  of  thought  and  study,  to 
apply  it  wisely  to  all  the  varied  demands  of  life 
and  society. 

First,  free  religion  has  an  infinite  faith  in  hu- 
manity. It  sets  no  bounds  to  the  possibilities  of 
the  human  race  here  and  now  on  this  very  planet. 
It  knows  man  only  as  the  child  of  God,  partaker  of 
his  spirit,  and  heir  to  his  infinite  resources.  Glory- 
ing in  all  the  past  achievements  of  the  mighty 
leaders  of  the  race,  it  accepts  none  as  the  Ultima 
Thule  of  progress  beyond  which  humanity  cannot  go. 
It  is  enough  for  it  to  know  that  a  thing  is  good,  to 
be  sure  that  it  must  be  possible.  It  knows  no 

"  fallen  Adam  there,  — 
.     A  red  clay  and  a  breath," 

but  a  new-born  babe  full  of  the  spirit  of  its  maker, 
and  capable  of  infinite  progress  in  intelligence  and 
goodness.  It  recognizes  evil,  not  as  a  vital  force, 
coequal  with  God,  but  as  delay  and  hindrance, 
negation  and  darkness,  to  be  overcome  only  with 
superabounding  light  and  love  and  life.  It  accepts, 
therefore,  the  means  of  reform  which  are  all  ready 
for  its  use.  It  asks  only  man  with  God,  the  Di- 


EELIOION  AS   SOCIAL  FORGE.  343 

vine  man,  one  with  the  Father,  and  one  also  with 
all  humanity,  to  do  God's  work  on  this  planet.  It 
demands  no  miraculous  power :  it  finds  power  and 
love  enough  incarnated  in  humanity  to  redeem  and 
advance  the  world.  It  sees  in  man  the  very  agSnt 
God  has  created  for  this  very  purpose,  to  organize 
and  develop  the  life  of  humanity  on  this  earth ; 
and  it  believes  that  only  faithful  use  of  the  powers 
implanted  within  us  is  needed  to  accomplish  all 
that  we  ask  for  in  our  wildest  dreams  or  our  highest 
prayers.  Swedenborg  says,  "  The  very  heavens  are 
in  the  form  of  a  man,"  and  all  that  we  need  ask  for 
earth  is,  that  man  should  rise  up  to  his  true  stature, 
and  live  out  in  its  utmost  fulness  the  life  that  is 
possible  for  him  here  upon  earth. 

How  perfectly  does  this  apply  to  the  reform 
which  we  have  seen  begun  and  nearly  accom- 
plished, the  abolition  of  negro  oppression,  and  to 
those  which  so  imperatively  demand  our  attention 
now  in  America,  —  the  Indian  and  Chinese  ques- 
tions. The  moment  the  full  recognition  of  the 
negro's  manhood  was  accomplished,  the  work  was 
done  ;  and  the  same  will  be  the  case  with  the  Ind- 
ian and  the  Chinese. 

And  here  is  the  meeting-point  of  free  religion 
with  true  science,  which  brings  me  to  my  second 
statement. 

Baron  Quetelet,  of  Belgium,  one  of  the  ripest 
scholars  and  profoundest  students  of  statistical 
science  (I  quote  from  the  Journal  of  the  Ameri- 
can Social  Science  Association  for  1870),  says  : 


344     FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

"  The  more  intelligence  increases,  the  nearer  we 
approach  the  beautiful  and  the  good.  The  per- 
fectibility of  the  human  species  results  as  a  neces- 
sary consequence  of  all  our  researches." 

Free  religion  is  therefore  specially  adapted  to 
the  work  of  philanthropy  and  reform  by  its  cord- 
ial alliance  with  science.  Reading  by  the  light  of 
ecclesiastical  history,  what  a  strange  proposition  is 
this, — religion  and  science  one!  Was  not  Ana*x- 
agoras  exiled  in  the  name  of  religion,  and  Galileo 
put  under  the  tortures  of  the  Inquisition  ?  Did 
not  the  gentle  Cowper  scoff  at  the  researches  of 
geology  ?  and  does  not  every  scientific  treatise  feel 
bound  to  justify  itself  against  the  charge  of  con- 
flicting with  the  dogmas  of  the  popular  religion  ? 
Are  we  not  again  and  again  warned  against  the 
pride  of  intellect,  and  taught  that  it  is  only  by 
unquestioning  faith  that  we  can  receive  the  spirit 
of  God? 

But  looked  at  from  the  centre  of  things,  in  the 
light  of  reason  and  common-sense,  what  is  more 
obvious  than  the  unity  of  religion  and  science  ? 
Religion  is  the  relation  to  God  in  the  inward 
heart,  through  love  and  faith.  Science  is  the  in- 
quiry into  God's  methods  of  action  in  the  outward 
world,  the  world  which  we  believe  he  has  created, 
and  of  which  he  is  the  vital  essence  and  sustaining 
force.  What  do  we  fear  to  find  there  ?  That  our  Fa- 
ther has  blundered  and  failed,  or  has  wilfully  done 
evil  instead  of  good  ?  What  faith  would  that  be 
in  a  human  friend  which  led  us  to  shun  investi- 


RELIGION  AS   SOCIAL   FORCE.  345 

gation  into  his  words  and  deeds  lest  perchance  our 
love  and  faith  should  be  destroyed  ? 

Free  religion  is  not  afraid  of  the  truth.  It  has 
no  pet  dogmas  to  defend,  nor  old  traditions  which 
must  not  be  shaken.  It  is  not  disturbed,  though 
the  earth  has  rolled  on  in  space  for  ten  millions  of 
years  instead  of  six  thousand:  it  knows  it  has 
always  rolled  under  the  guiding  hand  of  its  infi- 
nite and  perfect  Creator.  It  does  not  shudder  if 
science  teaches  that  it  is  gradually  approaching 
the  sun,  and  will  finally  be  absorbed  into  that  great 
luminary.  It  knows  that  it  will  only  be  in  accord- 
ance with  the  same  Divine  Law,  and  that  the  welfare 
of  all  will  be  secured  amid  the  great  conflagration, 
if  such  is  to  take  place. 

And  much  as  science  needs  the  inspiring  power 
of  religion  to  keep  it  broad  and  sweet  and  sane, 
always  loyal  and  true  to  its  Divine  Centre,  just  as 
much  does  religion  need  science  to  guide  its  hand, 
and  show  it  how  to  accomplish  the  good  which 
love  prompts  it  to  desire.  Free  religion  will  return 
to  science  the  service  she  receives  from  her.  As 
Pythagoras  said,  "  Divine  Wisdom  is  true  science," 
so  the  conscious  intuitions  of  religion  will  give 
that  guiding  light  to  science  which  she  needs. 
Faith  will  assure  us  of  the  grand  harmony  which 
must  exist  in  creation,  and  will  not  suffer  the  in- 
tellect to  rest  until  it  proves  the  law,  and  justifies 
clearly  to  all  men  that  which  religion  had  discerned 
spontaneously  for  itself.  Thus  we  find  that  many 
of  the  grandest  discoveries  of  science  have  been 


346      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

foreshadowed  and  predicted  by  religious  men  who 
welcomed  the  truth  of  God  in  their  souls  before 
they  read  its  confirmation  in  his  works.  When  the 
marriage  between  religion  and  science  is  acknowl- 
edged, and  the  couple  are  admitted  into  good  soci- 
ety, we  may  hope  for  yet  richer  fruits  from  their 
union. 

Never  was  the  need  of  this  union  more  clear 
than  now.  We  have  arrived  at  the  point  where 
we  cannot  rest  in  the  unconsciousness  of  ignorance. 
The  childhood  of  the  world  is  past.  We  must 
study  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  social  life,  to 
maintain  society  in  a  sound  and  healthy  condition. 
Life  has  become  rich  and  complicated,  full  of  diffi- 
cult problems.  The  simple  wish  to  help  and  bless 
others  is  not  enough  to  save  us  from  doing  incalcu- 
lable mischief,  unless  we  have  profound  wisdom  to 
guide  our  action. 

The  philanthropist  leaves  large  sums  of  money 
to  feed  the  poor,  and  builds  up  a  pauper  settlement 
which  is  the  curse  of  the  country  for  miles  around. 
Science  should  have  ploughed  his  money  into  the 
ground,  and  enabled  the  people  to  feed  themselves. 

The  great  questions  which  agitate  us  to-day  are 
not  merely  questions  of  good  and  evil  dispositions. 
The  temperance  question,  the  labor  movement,  the 
woman  question,  the  sanitary  reforms,  the  treat- 
ment of  crime,  pauperism,  —  all  demand  the  most 
thorough  and  scientific  knowledge  to  save  us  from 
the  gravest  errors.  The  saint  accepts  the  saying 
of  Jesus,  "  The  poor  ye  shall  always  have  with 


RELIGION  AS   SOCIAL  FORCE.  347 

you,"  and  believes  it  a  Divine  provision  for  ena- 
bling him  to  exercise  the  virtue  of  giving  alms, 
and  so  securing  a  higher  seat  in  heaven.  But  the 
reformer  asks,  Why  must  ye  always  have  the  poor 
with  you  ?  Why  should  not  society  be  so  organ- 
ized that  every  human  being  shall  have  a  fair 
chance  for  his  share  of  this  world's  goods  ?  —  and 
he  turns  to  science  to  help  him  to  solve  this  ques- 
tion. Social  science  says,  The  alms-giving  of  the 
church  has  been  the  fruitful  source  of  pauperism, 
and  hence  of  intemperance,  vice,  and  crime.  You 
have  no  right  to  gratify  your  own  benevolent  im- 
pulses by  this  indiscriminate  giving ;  you  are  bound 
to  seek  out  causes.  You  have  no  right  to  keep  pet 
beneficiaries  for  the  luxury  of  bestowing  charity, 
as  the  English  lords  preserve  their  woodcocks  for 
the  pleasure  of  hunting  them :  you  are  bound  to 
teach  them  to  help  themselves,  and  to  raise  them 
to  your  own  level  of  independent  freedom. 

A  pious  Spanish  poet  says,  that  sickness  is  the 
sign  of  God's  love.  I  give  a  part  of  the  quaint 
translation :  — 

"  This  frame  so  weak, 

Sharp  sickness'  hue, 
And  this  pale  cheek 

God  loves  in  you. 

"  More  faltering  speech 

And  weary  days 
Than  beauty's  blaze 
His  heart  will  reach." 

Mr.  Emerson  says,  "  Sickness  is  felony."  Is  he 
not  right  ?  Have  you  any  right  to  let  your  arms 


348  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

rust  when  God  wants  you  to  fight  the  battle  of 
life  ?  any  right  to  come  with  broken  tools  to  work 
in  his  vineyard  ?  any  right  to  waste  in  a  year  what 
should  serve  for  a  life  ?  Which  spirit  will  be  most 
likely  to  establish  the  board  of  health  and  clear 
out  the  foul  alleys  in  our  cities  ?  Let  Spain  and 
New  England  test  the  question. 

Again,  how  does  the  old  ecclesiasticism  speak  of 
death  ?  — 

"As  for  man,  his  days  are  as  the  grass; 
As  a  flower  of  the  field,  so  he  flourisheth  : 
The  wind  passe th  over  it  and  it  is  gone." 

And  a  familiar  Wesleyan  hymn  thanks  God, 

"  whose  wise,  paternal  love 
Hath  brought  my  active  vigor  down." 

This  spirit  is  not  confined  to  Christianity.  We 
find  the  same  wail  and  contempt  of  life  in  much 
of  the  heathen  poetry  and  philosophy,  in  all  relig- 
ion which  is  introspective  and  partial,  instead  of 
round  and  whole.  Superstition  and  piety  alike 
regard  premature  death  either  as  a  cruel  fate  or  as 
an  arbitrary  exercise  of  God's  inscrutable  will.  But 
social  science  says,  "  The  first  great  object  of  san- 
itary organization  should  be  to  watch  the  death 
rate,"  and  it  conclusively  proves  that  nothing  is 
more  entirely  under  the  control  of  law  than  human 
mortality  ;  and  every  instance  of  increased  care,  in 
obedience  to  the  Divine  laws  of  health,  clearly  re- 
ports itself  at  once  in  the  percentage  of  mortality. 

Nothing  can  be  more  holy  and  tender  than  Jesus' 


RELIGION  AS   SOCIAL  FORCE.  349 

attitude  towards  the  fallen  woman ;  but  the  Chris- 
tian religion  has  struggled  in  vain  for  eighteen  cent- 
X  uries  against  the  great  social  evil.  How  to  prevent 
it  is  still  the  great  unsolved  problem,  which  religion 
and  science  must  work  out  together.  Neither  can 
do  it  alone. 

Again,  the  labor  question  cannot  be  solved  by 
j  religion  without  the  aid  of  science.  The  capitalist 
may  shorten  the  hours  of  labor,  and  increase  the 
rate  of  wages ;  but  he  will  not  put  any  more  bread 
into  the  mouths  of  the  hungry  million,  unless  sci- 
ence steps  in  and  shows  him  how  to  apply  the 
forces  of  nature  so  that  eight  hours  may  do  the 
work  of  twelve,  and  an  acre  of  ground  well  tilled 
and  well  harvested  may  produce  the  food  of  three. 

The  Quaker  says  these  desires  after  beautiful 
things  cannot  be  satisfied  without  injuring  your 
fellow-beings.  Your  white  paint  is  poisonous : 
your  dyed  garments  are  unhealthful.  He  cuts 
them  off,  preserving  his  own  sense  of  right,  but 
impoverishing  the  world  of  grace  and  beauty. 
Science  combined  with  religion  says,  "  The  re- 
sources of  God  are  infinite.  He  has  given  us 
these  longings  for  beauty  and  comfort ;  there  must 
be  innocent  means  for  gratifying  them :  let  me  go 
to  work  and  seek  them  out."  It  substitutes  zinc 
for  lead,  and  the  paint  becomes  harmless;  and  it 
will  some  day  find  that  it  may  dye  green  gauze 
as  innocently  as  spring  decks  the  meadows  and 
fields  without  the  aid  of  arsenic. 

Religion  will  not  let  us  rest,  while  our  enjoy- 


350     FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

merits  and  comforts  are  purchased  with  the  debase- 
ment and  degradation  of  a  human  being :  science 
must  furnish  new  means  by  which  the  abundance 
of  good  things  shall  be  multiplied,  so  that  all  may 
partake  of  them.  Will  it  be  the  millennium  when 
the  nobleman  takes  his  turn  at  delving  with  the 
spade,  and  the  peasant  sits  upon  the  throne  ?  No ; 
but  when  labor  is  made  so  noble  and  its  rewards 
so  rich,  that  the  misery  of  idle  luxury  will  become 
too  heavy  to  be  borne.  But  to  accomplish  this 
work  science  must  be  free,  —  the  friend  and  part- 
ner of  religion,  not  her  slave. 

If  religion  says  to  science,  "  Seek  and  find,  but 
find  nothing  but  what  I  bid  you,"  her  freedom  and 
power  are  gone.  And  this  has  been  the  attitude 
of  ecclesiasticism  toward  science.  "  You  may  teach 
that  the  earth  moves  round  the  sun,  but  you  must 
not  refuse  to  teach  that  Joshua  commanded  the 
sun  and  moon  to  stay  their  apparent  motion  and 
remain  to  give  light  for  his  victory  over  the  ene- 
mies of  Israel."  "  You  may  teach  the  law  of  grav- 
itation, and  demonstrate  to  your  pupils  that  its 
operation  is  universal,  and  that  by  its  unerring 
force  and  constant  action  the  whole  machinery  of 
the  heavens  is  kept  in  harmony  and  order  ;  but 
you  must  not  suffer  them  to  doubt  that  this  benefi- 
cent law  was  suspended  that  Peter  might  walk 
upon  the  waves  to  meet  his  Master."  Science  thus 
held  in  fetters  cannot  do  its  legitimate  work.  It 
must  speak  the  bidding  of  its  master,  not  follow 
out  the  guidance  of  truth. 


RELIGION  AS  SOCIAL  FORCE.  351 

But  free  religion  is  not  fettered  to  any  such 
formulas.  It  does  not  even  feel  itself  bound  to 
protect  and  patronize  God.  If  the  sincere  student 
comes  to  it  and  says,  "  I  have  searched  through 
nature,  I  have  penetrated  into  the  heavens  with 
my  telescope,  and  have  traced  out  the  law  which 
binds  star  to  star,  even  to  the  remotest  verge  of 
the  Milky  Way ;  I  have  turned  my  microscope 
upon  the  minutest  insects  that  crowd  a  drop  of 
water,  and  traced  out  their  nervous  organizations 
in  their  little  bodies,  but  nowhere  can  I  find  your 
God,"  —  free  religion  does  not  answer  him  with 
contempt  or  anathema.  But  she  replies,  "  Search 
on,  my  friend :  tell  us  what  you  do  find.  Your 
gaze  will  not  drive  God  out  from  the  world  which 
he  has  created.  You  will  not  deprive  me  of  the 
joy  of  his  presence  if  I  find  him  and  you  cannot. 
But  you  will  find  many  and  precious  truths ;  you 
will  find  power,  harmony,  and  beauty ;  you  will 
find  deep  meanings  and  wonderful  illustrations. 
You  may  call  the  power  law  or  chance  or  what 
you  will,  only  seek  honestly,  and  tell  me  plainly 
what  you  do  find  ;  and  it  shall  be  my  own  fault  if  I 
cannot  relate  it  to  any  higher  truth  than  I  think 
has  been  given  me  to  hold."  She  says  with  Plato, 
"  While  truth  leads  the  way,  we  can  never  say  that 
any  band  of  evils  follows  in  her  train."  The  pres- 
ent revelations  of  science  as  of  religion  may  be 
partial  and  erroneous,  but  as  long  as  they  are  sin- 
cere and  progressive,  they  will  lead  to  good  ;  for  in 
the  universe  of  God  every  path  leads  to  the  cen- 
tre, if  only  steadily  followed. 


352  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

This  attitude  of  free  religion  to  science  makes 
our  work  the  most  eminently  practical  one.  We 
are  not  seeking  merely  speculative  freedom,  or  intel- 
lectual culture.  We  are  trying  to  clear  the  ground 
of  the  old  rubbish  of  tradition  and  formula ;  we 
are  striving  to  let  in  the  free  air  and  warm  sun- 
light upon  the  germs  of  life  with  which  it  is  filled, 
so  that  these  shall  quicken  and  fructify  and  bear 
fruit,  and  "  the  leaves  shall  be  for  the  healing  of 
the  nations." 

Religion  means  to  us  warmth  and  life  and  love 
and  growth,  —  what  the  sun  is  to  the  plant,  what 
the  dew  is  to  the  grass,  what  the  air  is  to  our  lungs, 
—  its  native  atmosphere  into  which  we  are  born,  — 
from  which  we  need  no  protection,  —  into  which 
we  can  open  out  our  whole  natures,  and  receive  it 
in  that  we  may  expand  and  grow  into  the  full  stat- 
ure and  bloom  of  humanity.  We  strive  to  prime 
away  the  dead  wood,  not  because  it  has  not  served 
the  growth  of  the  past  3"ear,  but  because  it  is  in, 
the  way  of  the  living  shoots  of  this  year.  We 
know  that  even  the  decay  of  the  past  may  become 
living  nourishment  for  the  present,  if  only  the  free 
forces  of  nature  be  allowed  to  play  upon  it,  so  that 
seeming  to  be  destroyed  it  shall  really  be  taken  up 
anew  into  the  current  of  life. 

Free  religion  does  not  at  this  moment  tend  to 
express  itself  in  finer  cathedrals  or  sweeter  litanies 
or  more  glorious  anthems.  All  these  are  good. 
We  must  have  religion  expressed  in  art ;  or,  rather, 
it  cannot  help  so  expressing  itself  when  it  is  full 


RELIGION  AS   SOCIAL  FORCE.  353 

of  rich,  bounding,  joyous  life,  as  it  should  be.  But 
it  may  be  long  ages  before  we  surpass  the  forms  of 
art  which  the  past  has  bequeathed  to  us. 

For  us  to-day  the  work  is  eminently  a  practical 
one.  '  Our  art  must  be  the  art  of  life.  Religion 
wedded  to  science  must  give  us  bread  for  all, 
shelter  for  all,  health,  freedom,  education  for  all. 
Religion  must  inspire  us  with  the  love  to  pour  it- 
self out  in  good  to  others,  and  to  ask  for  them  all 
that  we  would  ask  for  ourselves.  Science  must  be 
the  hand  to  execute  her  will,  to  search  out  causes 
and  to  devise  remedies,  and  to  found  the  good  that 
we  ask  for  on  the  eternal  rock  of  Divine  and  Im- 
mutable Law. 

Do  not  fear  that  life  thus  developed  will  become 
hard  and  unlovely :  when  the  heart  and  the  head 
work  together,  when  wisdom  does  the  bidding  of 
love,  when  religion  and  science,  the  love  and  know- 
ledge of  God,  have  worked  out  their  appointed 
results,  what  can  the  product  be  but  immortal 
good  and  beauty? 


VOICES    FROM    THE    FREE    PLATFORM. 


[EXPLANATORY  NOTE.  —  One  purpose  of  this  volume  is  to  give 
an  answer  to  the  question,  now  not  infrequently  asked,  What  is 
the  meaning  of  the  Free  Religious  Association  ?  It  is  one  of  the 
objects  of  that  Association  to  encourage  and  to  bring  before  the 
public  just  such  discussions  of  religious  problems  as  this  book  con- 
tains. It  aims  to  discover  and  to  establish  truth  in  religious 
matters  by  the  method  of  intelligent  free  inquiry.  Lectures, 
Conventions,  and  Publications  are  its  instrumentalities  :  and  this 
volume  is  made  up  chiefly  of  Essays  and  Addresses  that  have 
appeared  upon  its  platform.  In  addition  to  the  foregoing  more 
elaborate  essays,  it  has  been  thought  advisable  to  append  some 
selections  from  the  less  formal  discussions  which  have  occurred  in 
the  annual  meetings  of  the  Association,  and  have  been  preserved 
in  its  Reports.  The  following  extracts,  made  entirely  from  these 
annual  pamphlets,  will  show  what  a  variety  of  representative 
voices  have  been  heard  in  the  Conventions  of  the  Association,  and 
indicate  somewhat  the  range  of  topics  which  have  been  touched. 
It  will  be  perceived  that  the  organization  represents  certain  prin- 
ciples and  tendencies,  and  not  any  new  creed  or  jointly  subscribed 
system  of  faith.  These  principles  and  tendencies  are  perhaps  best 
suggested  by  the  title  of  the  book,  "  Freedom  and  Fellowship  in 
Religion,"  —  Freedom  of  inquiry  and  opinion,  and  yet  Fellowship 
in  spirit  and  aim.  And  they  are  expressed  in  the  two  chief  articles 
of  the  Constitution  as  follows  :  — 

"L  This  Organization  shall  be  called  the  Free  Religious  Association, — 
its  objects  being  to  promote  the  practical  interests  of  pure  religion,  to  in- 
crease fellowship  in  the  spirit,  and  to  encourage  the  scientific  study  of  man's 
religious  nature  and  history ;  and  to  this  end  all  persons  interested  in  these 
objects  are  cordially  invited  to  its  membership. 

"  II.  Membership  in  this  Association,  shall  leave  each  individual  respon- 
sible for  his  own  opinions  alone,  and  affect  in  no  degree  his  relations  to  other 
associations ;  and  nothing  in  the  name  or  Constitution  of  the  Association 
shall  ever  be  construed  as  limiting  membership  by  any  test  of  speculative 
opinion  or  belief,  —  or  as  defining  the  position  of  the  Association,  collectively 
considered,  with  reference  to  any  such  opinion  or  belief,  —  or  as  interfering 
in  any  other  way  with  that  absolute  freedom  of  thought  and  expression 
which  is  the  natural  right  of  every  rational  being." 

Should  any  readers  wish  to  know  more  of  such  an  Association, 
the  first  of  these  selections  may  meet  their  desire.  —  W.  J.  P.] 


VOICES    FROM    THE    FREE    PLATFORM. 


AIMS  OF  THE  FREE  RELIGIOUS   ASSOCIATION. 

As  one  who  from  the  outset  was  especially  interested 
in  the  formation  of  this  new  Association,  the  Secretary 
may  here  be  allowed  to  put  on  record  the  statement, 
that,  so  far  as  he  is  aware,  there  was  on  the  part  of  no 
one  of  those  having  the  like  interest  any  desire  or 
thought  of  forcing  into  a  compact  organization,  and 
into  a  strict  community  of  purpose  and  action,  the 
various  representative  religious  elements  to  which  they 
made  their  appeal  for  a  public  meeting ;  much  less  did 
they  presume  to  control,  through  any  formal,  mechan- 
ical contrivance,  the  progressive  religious  spirit  of  the 
age,  and  think  to  turn  it  into  some  special  channel. 
On  the  contrary,  the  first  premise  of  all  their  thinking 
and  acting  was,  that  this  spirit  must  be  left  perfectly 
free  and  untrammelled  in  order  to  work  out  its  proper 
results ;  and  their  sole  aim  was  to  form  some  simple 
plan  of  association  which  should  represent  and  give 
expression  to  this  perfect  religious  freedom;  not  pre- 
maturely to  hasten,  nor  artificially  to  shape,  any  natural 
religious  movements  that  are  in  progress,  but  to  pro- 
vide an  organism  —  itself  a  natural  result  of  these 
movements  —  for  religious  elements  that  are  spontane- 
ously attracted  more  or  less  strongly  to  each  other,  and 
that  are  already  prepared  for  some  kind  of  combination 


358  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

and  fellowship,  —  an  organism  that  should  enable  these 
elements  the  better  to  define  and  express  themselves  in 
public  sentiment  in  their  united  force,  and  at  the  same 
time  leave  the  largest  liberty  to  individual  opinion  and 
utterance. 

•  •.•••••••  • 

The  objects  of  the  Association  are  succinctly  stated 
in  the  first  Article  of  the  Constitution.  We  are  organ- 
ized, according  to  that  Article,  "  to  promote  the  practi- 
cal interests  of  pure  religion,  to  encourage  the  scientific 
study  of  theology,1  and  to  increase  fellowship  in  the 
spirit."  But  we  fail  to  perceive  the  full  bearing  of  this 
language,  unless  we  note  that  this  statement  of  purpose 
is  introduced  by  the  title  of  the  Association,  which  is 
"  Free  Religious,"  and  is  followed  by  an  invitation  to  "•all 
persons  interested  in  these  objects  "  to  become  members. 
The  basis  of  the  Association,  therefore,  is  broader  than 
any  thing  before  attempted  in  the  way  of  organization 
in  religious  history.  It  goes  below  any  one  specific 
form  of  religion,  and  seeks  to  find  the  common  ground 
on  which  all  religions  rest,  or  more  properly  religion 
itself  rests,  and  plants  itself  there.  It  contemplates 
the  ultimate  union,  not  simply  of  all  sects  in  Christen- 
dom, but  of  all  religions,  Christian  and  non-Christian. 
It  looks  beyond  "Christian"  limits  for  its  fellowship. 
Nor  is  this  aim,  even  thus  early,  only  ideal.  As  the 
meetings  last  year  and  this  both  testify,  it  is  in  a  meas- 
ure already  realized.  And  this  fact,  with  what  it  in- 
volves, is  the  most  distinguishing  feature  of  the  Asso- 
ciation. "  With  what  it  involves;"  for  the  important 

1  This  phrase  has  been  since  amended  so  as  to  express  the  idea 
more  clearly  thus  :  "  Scientific  study  of  man's  religious  nature  and 
history." 


VOICES  FROM  THE   FREE  PLATFORM.    359 

thing  is  not  so  much  the  fact  that  the  Association 
brings  different  sects  and  religions  together  on  one 
platform,  as  the  principle  underlying  that  fact.  This 
principle  is,  that  in  this  Association  these  various  re- 
ligious opinions  and  faiths  meet  and  mingle  on  perfectly 
equal  terms,  no  one  claiming  for  itself  what  it  does  not 
cordially  accord,  by  courtesy  and  by  right,  to  every 
other.  For  the  first  time  in  religious  history,  not  only 
representatives  of  differing  Christian  sects,  but  people 
of  all  religious  names  and  of  no  religious  name,  are  in- 
vited to  come  together  as  equal  bi'others,  and  confer 
with  one  another  on  the  highest  interests  of  mankind. 
Most  of  us  here  are  probably,  by  reason  of  birth  and 
education,  counted  in  the  census  of  the  world's  popu- 
lation as  "  Christian,"  whether  we  make  any  other  claim 
to  the  name  or  not.  But  on  the  platform  of  this  Asso- 
ciation we  do  not  obtrude  that  title.  We  agree  here 
to  listen  to  what  our  Hebrew  friend  may  have  to  utter, 
or  to  what  our  India  brother  may  write  to  us  of  their 
respective  religious  faiths,  with  the  same  candor  and 
the  same  integrity  and  openness  of  judgment  that  we 
accord  to  a  "  Christian "  speaker.  A  believer  in  the 
Christian  system  of  religion  may,  if  his  conscience  so 
dictate,  use  his  right  to  speak  on  the  platform  of  this 
Association  with  the  purpose  of  proving  the  claims  of 
his  particular  faith  paramount  to  all  others,  and  of  con- 
verting non-believers  to  his  views;  but  if  he  does  so, 
that  very  act  commits  him  to  hear  impartially  the  same 
claims  made  for  any  other  faith.  One  who  should  come 
here  simply  to  speak  with  dogmatic  and  sectarian  arro- 
gance for  his  own  belief,  and  not  cordially  to  listen  to 
what  might  be  said  in  behalf  of  another  belief,  would 
not  come  certainly  in  the  spirit  of  the  constitution  of 
this  Association. 


360  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

Yet  this  is  not  to  say  that  the  Free  Religions  Asso- 
ciation takes  the  ground  that  one  form  of  religion  or 
of  faith  is  as  true  ami  good  as  another.  It  simply  does 
not  determine  the  claims  of  any  specific  form  of  faith, 
or  assume  the  claims  of  any  to  be  determined.  It  de- 
clines to  consider  it  a  closed  question  that  the  claims  of 
any  religion  are  to  be  regarded  as  finally  established, 
and  gives  a  fair,  open  field  for  the  establishing  of  any 
religion,  or  of  so  much  of  any  religion  as  can  prove 
itself  to  be  true.  Christianity,  thus  far,  has  attempted 
to  convert  all  other  religions  to  itself.  The  Christian 
missionary  goes  to  India  and  says  to  the  natives  there, 
"  You  must  be  converted  to  my  faith,  or  there  is  no 
hope  of  your  progress  to  any  thing  better  in  this  world, 
or  of  your  happiness  in  the  world  to  come."  This 
Association  says  to  these  native  religious  devotees, 
"  Let  us  see  what  is  true  in  your  religion,  and  what  is 
true  in  this  and  that  other  form  of  faith,  and  be  ready 
to  accept  the  true  from  any  quarter:  and,  meantime, 
let  us  put  our  heads  together  and  see  if  we  cannot 
contrive  some  better  and  worthier  ways  of  living." 
The  Free  Religious  Association  simply  does  not  accept 
any  instituted  form  of  religion  as  necessarily  a  finality. 
It  admits  the  possibility  of  advance  in  religious  truth 
beyond  any  present  religious  system.  It  plants  itself 
on  Truth-seeking,  and  does  not  claim  to  have  found  a 
finality  in  religious  faith  and  practice. 

On  this  broad  basis,  with  this  declaration  of  equal 
religious  liberty  and  rights,  the  Free  Religious  Asso- 
ciation is  organized ;  and  it  is  evident  that  the  specific 
objects  of  the  Association,  as  stated  in  its  constitution, 
must  take  direction  and  shape  from  these  fundamental 
principles.  The  Association  aims  "  to  promote  the 


VOICES  FROM  TEE  FREE  PLATFORM.     361 

interests  of  pure  religion,"  without  stamping  those 
interests  with  any  special  name,  or  seeking  to  build 
up  any  sectarian  form  of  faith  and  worship.  It  aims 
"  to  encourage  the  scientific  study  of  theology,"  —  not 
fearing  to  trust  reason  and  free  inquiry  on  all  fields  of 
thought,  not  recalling  them  when  they  reach  the  limits 
of  the  "  Christian  "  or  any  other  special  confession  of 
faith,  but  striving  to  apply  a  more  truly  rational  and 
scientific  method  of  investigation  to  all  problems  of 
religious  experience  and  history.  It  aims  "to  increase 
fellowship  in  the  spirit,"  —  defining  that  fellowship  as 
nothing  narrower  than  the  brotherhood  of  man,  and 
making  it  rest  on  the  aspirations  and  strivings  of  our 
common  humanity  after  higher  truth  and  life.  —  Exec- 
utive Committee's  ^Report,  1868,  by  the  Secretary. 


KELIGIOUS  NEEDS   OF  THE  AGE. 

I  THINK  the  necessity  very  great,  and  it  has  prompted 
an  equal  magnanimity,  that  thus  invites  all  classes,  all 
religious  men,  whatever  their  connections,  whatever 
their  specialities,  in  whatever  relation  they  stand  to  the 
Christian  church,  to  unite  in  a  movement  of  benefit  to 
men,  under  the  sanction  of  religion.  We  are  all  very 
sensible,  it  is  forced  on  us  every  day,  of  the  feeling  that 
the  churches  are  outgrown ;  that  the  creeds  are  out- 
grown; that  a  technical  theology  no  longer  suits  us. 
It  is  not  the  ill-will  of  people,  —  no  indeed,  but  the 
incapacity  for  confirming  themselves  there. 

The  church  is  not  large  enough  for  the  man ;  it  cannot 
inspire  the  enthusiasm  which  is  the  parent  of  every 
thing  good  in  history,  which  makes  the  romance  of 


362  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

history.     For  that   enthusiasm  you  must  have  some- 
thing greater  than  yourselves,  and  not  less. 

The  child,  the  young  student,  finds  scope  in  his 
mathematics  and  chemistry,  or  natural  history,  because 
he  finds  a  truth  larger  than  he  is ;  finds  himself  con- 
tinually instructed.  But,  in  churches,  the  healthy  and 
thoughtful  mind  is  likely  to  find  itself  in  something 
less ;  it  is  checked,  cribbed,  confined.  And  the  statis- 
tics of  the  American,  the  English,  and  the  German 
cities,  showing  that  the  mass  of  the  population  is  leav- 
ing off  going  to  church,  indicate  the  necessity,  which 
should  have  been  foreseen,  that  the  church  should 
always  be  new  and  extemporized,  because  it  is  eternal, 
and  springs  from  the  sentiment  of  men,  or  it  does  not 
exist.  One  wonders  sometimes  that  the  churches  still 
retain  so  many  votaries,  when  he  reads  the  histories  of 
the  church.  There  is  an  element  of  childish  infatuation 
in  them  which  does  not  exalt  our  respect  for  man. 
Read  in  Michelet,  that  in  Europe,  for  twelve  or  four- 
teen centuries,  God  the  Father  had  no  temple  and  no 
altar.  The  Holy  Ghost  and  the  son  of  Mary  were 
Avorshipped ;  and  in  the  thirteenth  century  the  First 
Person  began  to  appear  at  the  side  of  his  son  in  pict- 
ures, and  in  sculpture,  for  worship,  but  only  through 
favor  of  his  son.  These  mortifying  puerilities  abound 
in  religious  history.  But  as  soon  as  every  man  is 
apprised  of  the  Divine  presence  within  his  own  mind, 
—  is  apprised  that  the  perfect  law  of  duty  corresponds 
with  the  laws  of  chemistry,  of  vegetation,  of  astronomy, 
as  face  to  face  in  a  glass  ;  that  the  basis  of  duty,  the 
order  of  society,  the  power  of  character,  the  wealth  of 
culture,  the  perfection  of  taste,  all  draw  their  essence 
from  this  moral  sentiment,  then  we  have  a  religion  that 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     363 

exalts ;  that  commands  all  the  social  and  all  the  private 
action. 

What  strikes  me  in  the  sudden  movement  which 
brings  together  to-day  so  many  separated  friends, — 
separated  but  sympathetic, —  and  what  I  expected  to 
find  here  was,  some  practical  suggestions  by  which  we 
were  to  reanimate  and  reorganize  for  ourselves  the  true 
church,  the  pure  worship.  Pure  doctrine  always  bears 
fruit  in  pure  benefits.  It  is  only  by  good  works,  it  is 
only  on  the  basis  of  active  duty,  that  worship  finds 
expression.  What  is  best  in  the  ancient  religions  was 
the  sacred  friendships  between  heroes,  the  sacred  bands, 
like  the  relations  of  the  Pythagorean  disciples.  Our 
masonic  institutions  probably  grew  from  the  like  ori- 
gin. 

The  close  association  which  bound  the  first  disciples 
of  Jesus  is  another  example ;  and  it  were  easy  to  find 
more.  The  soul  of  our  late  war,  which  will  always  be 
remembered  as  dignifying  it,  was  first,  the  desire  to 
abolish  slavery  in  this  country,  and  secondly,  to  abolish 
the  mischief  of  the  war  itself,  by  healing  and  saving  the 
sick  and  wounded  soldiers,  —  and  this  by  the  sacred 
bands  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  I  wish  that  the  vari- 
ous beneficent  institutions,  which  are  springing  up,  like 
joyful  plants  of  wholesomeness,  all  over  this  country, 
should  all  be  remembered  as  within  the  sphere  of  this 
Association,  —  almost  all  of  them  are  represented  here, 
—  and  that  within  this  little  band  that  has  gathered 
to-day  should  grow  friendship.  The  interests  that 
grow  out  of  a  meeting  like  this  should  bind  us  with 
new  strength  to  the  old  eternal  duties.  —  Ralph 
Waldo  JZmerson. 


364  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 


LIBERTY  AS   CONDITION. 

IT  is  said  that  liberty  is  only  a  condition.  True, 
but  it  is  a  vital  condition.  A  man  with  his  feet  tied  is 
in  the  condition  of  being  bound ;  untie  his  feet,  and  he 
is  only  in  the  condition  of  being  unbound  ;  but  that 
condition  is  the  essential  condition  of  all  his  progress. 
In  the  one  case,  he  cannot  move  a  step ;  in  the  other 
case,  he  walks  whithersoever  he  will.  We  admit  that 
freedom  is  a  condition,  but  we  say  it  is  a  necessary 
condition  of  progress.  When  we  mention  the  word 
"  liberty,"  we  account  for  all  that  has  been  done  in 
modern  science,  modern  art,  modern  literature,  and 
modern  life.  Our  American  civilization  turns  upon 
this  one  pivot  of  liberty.  Our  people  are  free.  All 
the  power  there  is, -is  represented  by  man.  All  the 
power  there  is,  is  in  human  nature.  There  is  no  power 
outside  of  man.  Power  becomes  strong  when  it  be- 
comes incarnate  in  man.  There  are  infinite  resources 
and  possibilities  of  power ;  but  there  is  no  force,  even 
of  divinity,  until  it  is  made  human  force  ;  and  the  only 
condition  on  which  that  human  force  can  be  developed, 
can  expand,  and  find  application,  is  the  condition  of 
absolute  freedom.  Not  simply  freedom  of  discussion, 
not  freedom  of  debate,  freedom  of  quarrel ;  we  do  not 
open  a  gladiatorial  aren'a ;  we  would  put  an  end  to  all 
that.  There  is  fighting  enough  now ;  there  has  been 
fighting  enough  before.  Freedom  of  discussion  im- 
plies partial  freedom.  When  people  are  only  free 
enough  to  be  able  to  come  with  their  swords  and  clear 
a  little  place  about  them,  where  they  can  stand  face  to 
face  with  their  adversary,  and  fight  on  equal  terms 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     365 

each  fighting  for  life,  that  is  but  partial  freedom.  But 
when  there  is  no  opprobrium,  no  reproval  cast  upon 
any,  no  ill  word  spoken  of  any ;  when  one  is  as  free  to 
avow  himself  an  Atheist  as  a  Theist,  a  Materialist  as  a 
Spiritualist,  a  Christian  as  a  non-Christian  or  an  anti- 
Christian  ;  when  one  is  perfectly  free  to  sit  down  with 
any  company,  —  with  publicans  and  sinners  if  he  will, 
without  having  any  ugly  name  of  "  Atheist"  or  "  In- 
fidel "  flung  in  his  face,  then  we  have  freedom,  —  free- 
dom of  contribution ;  polemics  are  no  more ;  debate  is 
disarmed ;  controversy  is  at  an  end ;  we  are  not  ene- 
mies ;  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  swords  and  pistols ; 
we  are  friends ;  we  take  each  other  by  the  hand ;  we 
open  our  arms  for  all  to  come  in ;  we  say,  "  You  shall 
have  as  much  right  as  we  have.  We  are  brothers. 
Let  us  each  add  his  mite  to  the  general  fund  of  knowl- 
edge and  cheer  and  inspiration,  and  then  we  shall  get 
all  the  power  there  is,  losing  no  atom  of  it."  —  0.  B. 
Froihingham. 


SPIRITUAL  LIBERTY. 

FOE  myself,  I  belong  to  a  sect.  I  love  it  and  I 
honor  it.  I  believe  its  history  to  be  one  of  transcend- 
ent glory.  I  believe  that  the  brave  men  and  women 
who  have  belonged  to  it  in  different  ages  and  in  different 
lands  have  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  those  who  have 
demanded  "soul-liberty;"  and  at  the  stake,  at  the 
whipping-post,  in  the  prison,  everywhere  by  their  blood 
they  have  sealed  this  precious  testimony.  But  I  am 
sometimes  afraid  that  my  sect,  having  passed  out  from 
under  the  harrow  of  persecution,  being  no  longer  a 
scorned  and  outcast  people,  and  having  grown  to  mag- 


366  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

nificent  proportions  of  strength,  of  culture,  of  educa- 
tion, of  wealth,  and  of  power,  are  beginning  to  forget 
the  glorious  lessons  of  the  past,  and  are  tempted  to 
build  up  simply  an  ecclesiastical  structure,  and  to  put 
their  hand  of  power  upon  those  who  to-day  wish  only 
to  repeat  the  announcements  which  our  ancestors  so 
gloriously  and  so  bravely  made.  All  church  history  is 
but  a  repetition  of  this  experience,  and,  therefore,  it 
comes  to  pass  that  in  every  age  this  battle  must  be 
fought  over  again.  Through  eighteen  long  centuries, 
now  in  this  land  and  now  in  that,  now  by  this  people, 
now  by  that  people,  now  by  a  resistance  to  civil  tyr- 
anny, now  by  a  protest  against  ecclesiastical  despotism, 
this  assertion  of  the  liberty  of  every  man  to  believe 
for  himself,  answering  only  to  God,  and  not  to  human 
tribunals,  has  been  made  again  and  again.  I  believe 
that  it  is  made  here  to-day,  not  in  any  spirit  of  wild 
enthusiasm  or  distorted  fanaticism,  but  in  a  calm,  ear- 
nest, studious,  and  honest  way. 

Now,  in  this  land,  which  we  call  free,  in  this  age, 
which  we  call  glorious,  we  need,  not  so  much,  perhaps, 
for  our  own  sakes  as  for  the  sake  of  those  who  shall 
come  after  us,  to  assert  the  principle  which  more  than 
two  long  centuries  ago  was  the  very  axiom  of  Protes- 
tantism,—  the  absolute  right  of  every  human  soul  to 
interpret  for  itself  the  whole  word  of  Scripture.  True,  the 
age  of  outward  persecution  is  past.  No  longer  do 
the  thunderbolts  forged  at  the  Vatican,  and  hurled  by 
the  angry  hand  of  the  Pope,  excite  alarm,  but  merri- 
ment only,  on  the  part  of  those  against  whom  they  are 
directed.  The  horrid  chambers  of  the  Inquisition  are 
deserted,  the  dreadful  mechanism  of  torture  lies  idle 
and  rusted,  the  whipping-post  and  the  scaffold  to-day 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     367 

claim  no  victims  to  religious  bigotry ;  but  there  is  a 
more  subtle,  and,  if  possible,  a  more  accursed  persecu- 
tion, which  to-day,  even,  is  employed  by  too  many  who 
vainly  dream  they  are  doing  God  service.  It  is  the 
persecution  which  seeks  to  brand  with  odium  and  write 
"  outcast "  upon  brave  and  honest  souls,  who  simply 
differ  from  their  fellows  on  questions  of  intellectual 
interpretation  or  doctrinal  statement,  while  their  be- 
havior and  lives  are  on  the  side  of  justice,  of  brother- 
hood, and  of  love.  I  think,  therefore,  that  we  need  to 
take  to  ourselves  the  lessons  which  are  so  beauteously 
illustrated  in  the  life  and  behavior  of  Jesus ;  that  it  is 
not  what  a  man  says  he  believes  that  makes  him  either 
to  be  accepted  or  to  be  rejected,  but  it  is  what  a  man 
does.  A  life  of  justice,  a  life  of  purity,  a  life  of  chaste- 
ness,  a  life  of  temperance,  a  life  of  benevolence,  a  life 
that  puts  out  its  hand  of  defence  over  the  weak  and 
the  oppressed,  a  life  that  dares  to  defy  wealth  and 
power,  even,  if  they  are  upon  the  side  of  wrong,  —  is 
not  such  a  life  a  life  of  unquestioned  righteousness  ? 
For  myself,  I  hold  it  to  be  a  cardinal  and  vital  dogma, 
that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  I 
believe  him  to  be  God  incarnated,  manifested  in  flesh. 
When  I  look  upon  him  stretched  upon  the  Cross  of 
Calvary,  when  I  behold  that  crown  of  thorns,  those 
wounded  hands  and  feet,  that  side  pierced  by  the  cruel 
foeman's  spears,  my  soul  sees  there  my  vicarious  atone- 
ment and  sacrifice,  and  by  the  shedding  of  that  blood 
I  believe  my  sin  to  be  pardoned.  That  to  my  soul  is 
a  profound,  deep,  earnest,  and  absorbing  belief.  But 
if  any  other  man  judge  differently,  I  am  not  consti- 
tuted an  ecclesiastical  tribunal  to  try  him,  or  to  pro- 
nounce a  verdict  of  condemnation  against  him.  I 


368  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

think  of  what  Paul  said,  "  Who  art  thou  that  judgest 
another  man's  servant?  To  his  own  master  he  stand- 
eth  or  falleth."  I  recollect  that  the  severest  and  bit- 
terest rebukes  which  passed  the  lips  of  the  gentle 
Nazarene  were  those  which  were  hurled  at  the  scribes 
and  pharisees  who  sat  in  Moses'  seat,  who  wore  broad 
phylacteries,  who  loved  the  uppermost  seats  in  the 
synagogue,  who  paid  tithes  of  mint,  anise,  and  cummin, 
and  yet  who  devoured  widows'  houses,  and  forgot  the 
wider  law  of  justice  and  of  love.  I  transfer  that  lesson 
to  to-day,  and  think  that  it  is  not  the  outward  eccle- 
siastical relationships  which  men  hold  that  will  save 
them,  or  cause  them  to  perish,  but  that  vital  commu- 
nion between  God  and  their  own  souls  is  the  one  thing 
necessary  to  salvation. —  Charles  H.  Jifalcom. 


LIBERTY   SAFE   AND    CONSERVATIVE. 

A  DEFINITION  of  liberty  will  not  supply  the  place  of 
liberty.  We  must  have  the  thing  itself,  nor  fear  to 
confront  the  spirit  which  our  fathers  evoked.  It  is  not 
from  the  free-born  that  come  the  excesses  that  have 
darkened  the  pages  of  history,  but  from  bondmen  who 
have  broken  loose.  Impose  restraints,  and  you  shall 
have  rebellions.  Withhold  rights,  and  the  State  shall 
be  convulsed  with  the  earthquake  throes  of  revolu- 
tion. 

The  yearning  for  liberty  is  ineradicable,  but  it  may 
be  repressed  till  it  becomes  a  blind  instinct,  bursting 
all  barriers,  scorning  all  restraints ;  a  Samson,  reck- 
less of  consequences,  so  it  can  bring  to  their  overthrow 
the  ponderous  walls  of  old  abuse.  Liberty  is  conser- 


VOICES  FROM   THE  FREE  PLATFORM.    309 

vative ;  it  builds  up ;  it  is  like  the  sap  of  the  oak  that 
courses  to  every  twig  and  root,  creating  as  it  goes  new 
germs,  developing  ever  more  perfect  forms,  ever  greater 
strength.  License  is  liberty  made  insane,  the  house- 
hold fire  become  a  conflagration.  The  Church  points 
to  the  French  Revolution  and  the  Reign  of  Terror  as 
an  illustration  of  too  much  liberty.  She  does  not  hint 
that  the  force  of  the  recoil  of  that  outraged  humanity 
was  precisely  the  measure  of  the  outrage  it  had  suf- 
fered. Revolution  is  the  asphyxiated  heart  in  the 
spasm  of  recovery.  In  the  crypts  of  the  Church  the 
atmosphere  had  grown  poison  by  centuries  of  con- 
finement, and  when  Voltaire  and  his  fellow-mockers 
let  in  a  little  fresh  air  from  the  outer  world,  the  re- 
storative breath  excited  convulsion  terrible  to  behold, 
but  an  evidence  of  returning  health. 

The  breath  of  life  in  the  human  soul  is  love  of  lib- 
erty. All  progress  is  from  less  to  more  freedom  ;  from 
ignorance  and  subordination  to  intelligent  self-direc- 
tion. The  natural  enemy  of  liberty  is  authority.  This 
stays  progress  and  hinders  growth ;  and  of  all  forms 
of  authority  that  which  entrenches  itself  behind  holy 
names  is  the  subtlest  and  most  oppressive.  No  tyranny 
is  so  relentless  as  that  which  is  exercised  in  the  name 
of  God.  The  despotism  of  mere  force  is  comparatively 
harmless ;  but  when  despotism  takes  the  form  of  relig- 
ion, and  enforces  its  exactions  with  a  "  thus  saith  the 
Lord,"  not  only  human  rights  are  endangered,  but 
humanity  itself  is  paralyzed.  To  the  individual  soul, 
born  to  a  destiny  that  it  cannot  grasp,  it  is  of  vital 
importance  that  it  be  left  in  freedom  to  deal  as  it  best 
can  with  the  great  problem  of  its  relations  and  destiny. 
What  hope  for  it  when  authority  in  the  name  of  re- 

24 


370  FREEDOM.  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

ligion  seizes  on  every  vague  hope  and  fear,  and  out  of 
these  forges  a  chain  that  never  clanks,  but  clings  so 
closely  that  the  victim  scarcely  knows  where  the  op- 
pression begins,  nor  whether  his  limitations  are  of  his 
nature  and  inevitable,  or  the  result  of  a  usurping  will  ? 
Mystery  is  transformed  into  mastery,  and  religion  is 
made  to  rebind  the  soul.  —  Celia  JZurleigh. 


HUMANITY'S   DREAM. 

CONCEIVE  the  situation  of  the  animal  man  in  the 
midst  of  the  physical  universe.  What  an  insect,  what 
an  atomy,  what  an  embodied  insignificance  he  appears! 
Without  natural  clothing,  without  natural  weapons, 
wanting  the  wing  and  eye  of  the  falcon,  wanting  the 
scent,  speed,  and  native  cunning  of  the  fox,  a  mere 
mouthful  to  some  of  his  animal  neighbors,  feeble  in 
instinct,  delicate  in  digestion,  more  sensitive  and  sus- 
ceptible of  pain,  and  less  provided  by  nature  with 
ready-made  supply,  than  any  other  creature,  —  he 
exhibits  the  maximum  of  want  and  the  minimum  of 
resource.  What  can  he  do  but  tug  and  sweat  under 
the  whip  of  his  own  necessities  ?  Lorded  over  by  the 
immense  system  of  the  world,  what  sentiment  can  he 
have  but  that  of  his  own  littleness,  subjection,  and 
insignificance?  When  the  thunder  breaks,  when  the 
storm  roars,  when  the  sea  rages,  when  the  earth  shakes, 
when  the  elements  are  at  their  huge  horse-play,  what 
is  he?  The  grass  beneath  his  foot  grows  fearlessly 
when  his  knees  are  knocking  together.  The  pines  lift 
their  proud  heads  to  wrestle  with  the  tempest  when  he 
dives  for  an  uncertain  security  into  a  hole  in  the  earth. 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     371 

Nature  overlies  him  with  all  its  weight;  what  shall 
lift  it  off,  lift  him  above  it,  and  enthrone  him  in  a  sense 
of  the  sovereign  significance  of  his  own  being  ? 

It  is  to  be  done  by  a  peculiar  resource  within  him- 
self; by  somewhat,  which,  in  allusion  to  its  ethereal 
nature,  I  shall  at  present  call  the  immanent  dream  of 
the  human  soul,  —  a  dream  that  stands  in  perpetual,  de- 
fiant contrast  with  his  outward  experience.  The  forces 
of  the  world  enslave  him ;  he  dreams  pure  freedom, 
absolute  and  immortal.  All  things  around  him  change, 
and  helplessly  he  changes  with  them ;  he  dreams  a 
conscious  poise  and  comprehension,  that  mutation  can- 
not invade.  Time  sweeps  past  with  its  succession  of 
days,  and  on  the  wings  of  the  days  his  life  flies,  to 
disappear  as  they  do ;  he  dreams  the  conscious  eternal. 
The  world  affronts  him  with  hard,  material,  impenetra- 
ble fact ;  insolently  independent  of  him ;  owing  noth- 
ing, as  appears,  to  any  principle  in  his  breast :  he  dreams 
the  primacy  and  universality  of  thought,  holding  the 
solid  universe  in  solution  for  ever.  In  the  physical 
world,  force  is  the  be-all  and  end-all ;  he  dreams  the 
conscious  right,  commissioned  with  authority  to  judge 
reality  by  ideal  standards,  and  renew  it  in  an  ideal 
image.  All  that  he  beholds  partakes  of  imperfection  ; 
he  dreams  the  perfect,  —  beauty  and  good  without  flaw 
and  without  instability. 

This  dream,  moreover,  is  humanity  itself ,  the  essence 
of  its  nature.  All  the  distinctive  genius  of  man  is  in 
it ;  all  his  high  performance  comes  out  of  it.  It  enters 
into  his  contemplation  of  the  forms  of  nature  and  life, 
and  makes  poetry  and  art ;  into  his  regard  of  nature 
assumed  to  be  the  embodiment  of  thought,  and  makes 
science ;  into  the  eye,  with  which  he  reads  the  signifi- 


372  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

cance  of  his  own  being,  considered  as  universal  truth, 
and  makes  philosophy ;  into  his  sense  of  relation  to  his 
fellow,  and  makes  morality,  civil  and  social  order;  into 
his  self-recognition,  and  makes  the  aspiration  to  liberty  ; 
it  hovers  .before  him  as  an  ideal,  and  makes  the  impulse, 
the  guidance,  and  the  goal  of  progress.  —  JD.  A.  Was- 
son. 


INNER   MEANING   OF  RELIGION. 

WHAT  a  word  that  is,  —  "  Religion  "!  How  deep  it 
lies  in  the  whole  history  of  man !  How,  in  all  the 
efforts  that  men  make  to  escape  from  the  bondage 
which  has  been  connected  with  it,  they  cannot  get 
away  from  the  thing  itself!  A  friend  of  mine,  recently 
returned  from  England,  said  that,  among  intelligent 
and  cultivated  men  whom  he  met  there,  he  found  that 
.religion  was  utterly  given  up ;  "  but,"  he  said,  "  they 
are  men  who  hold  fast,  with  true  loyalty,  to  moral 
principle."  "Then,"  I  said,  "that  is  their  religion." 
And  that  is  the  religion  of  multitudes,  who,  either 
from  want  of  an  original  constitution  of  sentiment,  or 
disgusted  by  the  false  exhibitions  of  devout  sentiment, 
turn  away  from  the  whole  emotional  side  of  religion, 
but  place  their  feet  firm  on  the  rock  of  righteousness, 
right  doing,  obeying  the  divine  law,  —  a  sacred  princi- 
ple itself,  consecration  itself,  therefore  itself  a  religion : 
though  I  should  not  say  the  whole  of  religion,  for  re- 
ligion, covering  the  whole  of  man,  is  the  idea  of  truth 
with  reason ;  it  is  a  righteousness  of  law  in  his  con- 
science ;  it  is  an  inspiration  and  an  affection  in  the  heart. 
We  want  to  plead  for  all  these  things :  we  find  room 
for  them  all  in  our  freedom.  Our  freedom  does  not 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     373 

release  us  from  the  attractions  of  any  one  of  them ; 
we  do  not  in  our  liberty  go  off  into  space  :  but  we  find 
within  ourselves  those  sacred  divine  laws  —  a  reality  of 
experience  —  which  bind  us,  in  every  direction,  to  the 
true,  to  the  right,  to  the  beautiful,  to  the  loving.  A  senti- 
ment so  deep  in  man's  soul  is  not  going  to  pass  away  :  it 
is  only  the  transient  forms  which  pass  away,  when  some- 
times men  are  wrenched  from  their  old  beliefs,  and  seem 
to  be  set  afloat ;  when  they  are  ready  to  believe  that, 
because  they  have  been  deceived  under  the  guise  of 
sentiments  called  religious  and  emotions  called  devout, 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  true,  devout  feeling.  What 
we  want  to  get  at,  on  every  side,  is  reality,  —  facts: 
facts  of  physical  nature,  and  of  the  spiritual  world ; 
facts  of  the  emotions ;  facts  of  the  soul.  .  .  .  We  want 
to  be  uplifted  at  times  from  things  visible  into  things 
invisible,  and  to  know  that  in  our  life,  which  is  passing 
away  and  in  its  nature  perishable,  there  is  a  reality 
which  constantly  passes  on,  through  ways  of  change, 
itself  unchanged,  and  to  lay  hold  of  this  reality  through 
the  ideal  faculty  of  our  souls.  That  is  Religion. 

What  is  aspiration  after  perfection  but  the  action  of 
the  ideal  element  in  us,  seeking  a  better  than  we  have 
ever  seen,  not  contented  with  the  facts  that  are,  but 
knowing  that  there  are  greater  facts  beyond  ?  A  reality 
we  want  our  religion  to  be  in  its  freedom :  freedom 
from  superstition ;  freedom  from  external  authority. 
Not  that  we  may  stand  still,  but  that  we  may  grow  in 
every  direction  ;  that  we  may  fill  out  towards  every 
point;  that  we  may  receive,  from  all  quarters,  light  and 
truth  and  peace  and  strength  and  inspiration,  —  a  feel- 
ing that  there  is  something  above  ourselves,  —  name  it 
as  you  may,  state  it  as  you  may,  —  a  feeling  of  something 


374      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

above  ourselves  and  yet  akin  to  ourselves,  for  ever  draw- 
ing us  on  by  an  attraction  which  we  could  not  resist  if 
we  would,  and  would  not  if  we  could  in  our  best  moods, 
and  hemming  us  in,  not  letting  us  go  from  it,  because  it 
is  the  law  of  our  own  life,  —  that  life  within  us  which 
is  akin  to  God ;  which  enables  us  to  say,  with  all  the 
liberty  of  thought  as  well  as  the  emotion  of  feeling, 
"  Our  Father,"  since  it  is  this  kindred  with  the  Infinite 
that  we  mean  when  we  say,  "Father." —  Samuel  Long- 
fellow. 


THE   PERMANENT    AND    THE    TRANSIENT   IN 
RELIGION. 

FORMS,  the  determinate  mould  in  which  ideas  of  God 
and  worship  are  cast,  may  change  or  perish,  and  yet 
religion  in  its  essence  remain  unharmed,  untouched. 
Flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God. 
The  task  set  to  man,  and  especially  to  man  of  this  gen- 
eration, is  to  purify  his  worship,  to  purge  it  of  the  sen- 
suous element.  As  there  is  a  destructive  force,  a  power 
disintegrating,  tending  to  break  down,  to  corrupt,  to 
kill,  so  also  there  is  a  vital  force,  a  power  industrious 
to  build  up,  to  enlarge,  exalt,  and  free.  There  is  this 
vitality  in  the  soul.  It  seeks  to  resist  and  surmount 
the  degradations  of  sense,  to  raise  the  spirit  to  pure 
thought  and  liberty.  The  battle  is  as  old  as  history, 
and  there  are  shown  to  have  been  substantial  conquests 
won.  From  the  low  fetich-worship  there  has  been  an 
advance  to  a  partially  finer  and  better  in  nature-worship, 
prostration  before  gods  grotesque  enough,  dwelling  in 
dark  abodes,  but  less  material,  invisible.  The  outer 
image  gave  way  before  an  inner  image;  the  idol  of 


VOICES  FROM   THE   FREE   PLATFORM.     375 

wood  or  of  stone  was  broken  to  be  succeeded  by  a  con- 
ception in  thought,  a  conception  gross  and  very  anthro- 
pomorphic indeed,  but  still  finer,  less  unworthy  than 
that  represented  in  wood.  Polytheism  was  exchanged 
for  monotheism,  the  divine  was  unified,  the  many  melted 
into  one.  The  grosser  personal  conceptions  were  laid 
aside  ;  corporeity,  physical  organs,  as  eyes,  ears,  hands, 
dwelling  in  special  place,  or  locality,  the  anthropomor- 
phic ways  of  seeing,  knowing,  doing,  &c.,  —  these,  in 
the  course  of  ages,  in  good  degree  have  passed  away. 

Other  work  remains  to  be  done,  till  there  be  in  our 
conception  of  the  divine  a  complete  separating  away 
of  every  thing  that  even  in  thought  involves  outer  or 
personal  limitation. 

In  this  thorough  elimination  is  the  idea  of  person  to 
be  laid  aside  ?  Perhaps  so,  since  it  is  so  hard  to  hold 
by  person  and  escape  the  anthropomorphic  conceptions. 
"In  the  idea  of  person,"  says  Fichte,  in  his  sublime 
invocation,  "  there  are  limitations  ;  how  can  I  clothe 
thee  with  it,  without  these?"  In  attempting  to  dis- 
engage and  lay  hold  of  the  content  of  pure  thought, 
the  intuition  within  us,  it  is  difficult  to  say  where  we 
may  or  must  stop.  Our  idea  is  conditioned  by  form, 
and  yet  form  limits  the  idea.  All  unconsciously  men 
borrow  from  the  sensuous  fancy  what  they  suppose  to 
belong  to  the  spiritual  intuition.  Professor  Martineau, 
as  indeed  do  generally  the  theologians  who  appeal  to 
intuition  for  support  of  their  views,  deems  that  in  that 
content  are  given,  not  only  the  divine  existence,  but 
personality,  and  will,  works,  ways,  very  much  after  the 
human  cast.  Very  hard  it  unquestionably  is,  as  we 
speak  of  the  Highest,  to  escape  the  necessity  of  im- 
personation. And  yet,  doubtless,  the  thought  is  to 


376  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

clear  itself  more  of  the  personal  determination  as  we 
attempt  to  reach  pure  view  of  God. 

But,  not  to  dwell  upon  this  subtle  question,  which 
might  involve  us  in  debate  as  protracted  and  unsatis- 
factory as  that  which  afflicted  the  schoolmen  upon  the 
subject  of  Universals,  we"  may  say  that  religion  will 
come  more  and  more  to  centre  in  those  ideas  which, 
present  ever  in  consciousness  and  intelligible  to  the 
simplest  understanding,  are  yet  so  ethereal  that  they 
pass  beyond  the  range  of  the  loftiest  thought,  and 
represent  to  us  well  the  conditions  of  the  infinite; 
ideal  Truths,  —  ideas  so  substantial  and  enduring  they 
are  the  reality  of  Truth  itself, — truths  so  transcendent, 
superlative,  everlasting,  they  are  pre-reminently  ideal. 
Justice,  Truth,  Beauty,  Excellence,  —  these  are  some 
of  the  names  we  call  them  by ;  and,  under  whatever 
name,  they  hint  the  illimitable.  Do  we  seek  terms 
comprehensive,  most  deeply  significant  ?  There  are 
no  words  so  broad  and  inclusive  as  they.  Do  we  seek 
that  which  conveys  omnipresence,  eternity,  the  majesty 
of  wisdom  and  power?  There  is  nothing  which  so 
finely  fulfils  the  conditions  of  spirit  as  the  reality 
which  they  symbolize.  They  veil  and  they  reveal, 
temper  the  light  to  our  mortal  eyes,  and  express  in 
sublimest,  fittest  speech  we  know,  the  One  inexpressi- 
ble. Here  is  shrine  for  worship,  altar  for  sacrifice, 
temple  for  aspiration  and  prayer.  Here  is  fane  where 
idolatry  cannot  enter,  an  object  we  may  adore  without 
possibility  of  un worthiness  or  any  excess,  a  beauty,  a 
Madonna,  we  may  love  without  degradation  or  effemi- 
nacy. Much  as  we  sip  and  quaff,  we  can  never  exhaust 
the  sweet ;  freely  as  we  may  partake,  we  can  never 
cloy  of  the  possession. 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     377 

Religion  thus  becomes  the  pure  worship  of  Truth 
and  Reality,  the  largest,  noblest  fact  possible  to  our 
being.  It  is  sobriety,  holding  every  thing  at  its  worth, 
reading  all  aright,  suffering  never  any  intoxication, 
exaggerating  never  the  present,  pursuing  nowhere 
unduly  whatever  may  be  grateful  or  desired.  It  is 
activity,  wakeful  energy,  deep  interest,  constant  doing, 
finding  stakes  to  be  contended  for  in  this  world  of 
time,  and  willing  to  sacrifice  all  for  their  winning.  It 
is  repose,  keeping  ever  the  poise,  no  heat  even  in  the 
thick  of  the  battle,  remembering  the  to-morrow  after 
to-day,  and  resting  in  perfect  trust.  It  is  dedication  to 
the  highest,  wedding  Virtue,  embracing  Truth  and  Ex- 
cellence. It  is  invocation  to  the  finest  and  the  best ; 
it  says  to  great  Propriety,  — • 

"  Be  thou  my  pattern,  thou  my  guide, 
O'er  every  thought  and  step  preside." 

"  I  invoke  and  I  worship  benevolence,  purity,  and  a 
worthy  life,"  says  a  Persian  prayer,  coming  down  may- 
hap from  the  days  of  Zoroaster.  So  the  soul  shall  say, 
"  I  invoke  and  I  worship  the  ideal  perfect.  Oh  !  mould 
thou  me,  and  assimilate  to  thy  complete  image ;  make 
me  to  be  like  thyself."—  C.  D.  B.  Mills. 


KELIGION  AS  EFFORT  TOWARD   SELF-PERFECTION. 

IF  I  find  that  religion  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms,  to 
its  simplest  expression,  is  simply  the  effort  of  man  to 
perfect  himself,  does  that  seem  to  be  an  inadequate, 
poor,  and  empty  conception?  Does  it  seem  to  exclude 
the  Infinite?  No;  far  from  that.  You  cannot  travel 


378     FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  road  towards  perfection  without  very  soon  discov- 
ering that  you  cannot  attain  it  step  by  step.  The  path 
to  infinity  is  not  a  ladder.  You  cannot  complete  your 
search,  and  gain  its  object.  You  feel  that  you  have 
entered  upon  a  quest  which  is  infinite,  endless,  —  not 
possible  to  be  ended,  even  in  an  eternity  of  time.  The 
very  thought  of  progress  presupposes  a  goal:  the  very 
thought  of  progress,  again,  implies  the  impossibility  of 
a  goal.  You  go  from  less  to  more  and  from  more  to 
most,  but  you  still  have  an  infinite  stretch  of  space  be- 
yond; and  the  very  fact  that  you  are  thus  travelling 
onward  into  space  gives  you  an  idea  of  the  infinite 
space  in  which  you  live,  and  move,  and  have  your  be- 
ing. Many  a  man  starts  out  on  this  road  towards  per- 
fection, fired  by  a  deep  hunger  and  thirst  for  the  ideal, 
but  not  knowing  whither  it  shall  lead  him,  or  what 
thoughts  it  shall  give  birth  to  in  his  own  soul.  But  I 
believe  that,  if  he  travel  that  road  persistently,  he  will 
find  himself  accompanied  by  a  growing  consciousness 
of  the  infinity  of  the  universe  in  which  he  dwells,  the 
infinity  of  the  Power  which  has  made  him  and  makes 
all  the  infinity  of  this  Nature  which  he  inhabits.  Nat- 
ure herself  is  the  effort  of  the  Infinite  to  express  its 
own  perfection.  The  very  thought  of  infinite  perfec- 
tion is  implied  in  the  effort  to  perfect  one's  self.  The 
thought  of  our  own  perfection  implies  the  thought 
of  that  infinite  perfection  of  which  ours  is  but  the  lee- 
blest  imitation  and  copy.  So,  although  I  admit  that 
many  a  man  may  be  a  religious  man  in  having  thu. 
deep  thirst  for  the  ideal,  and  in  putting  forth  the  effort 
to  create  and  perfect  it  in  his  own  life,  and  yet  be  tech- 
nically and  in  his  own  thought  an  atheist,  I  do  believe 
that  this  effort  to  reproduce  voluntarily  within  himself 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     379 

the  unity  of  the  universe  find  to  help  carry  forward  its 
laws  and  powers  to  their  highest  evolution  in  his  own 
soul,  has  a  direct  tendency  towards  what  I  should  name 
Theism,  were  I  called  upon  to  describe  it  by  the  fittest 
term.  The  Atheism  which  starts  out  with  devotion  to 
any  idea  must  logically  end,  I  think,  in  the  simplest, 
the  fairest,  the  noblest,  the  highest  form  of  Theism. 
That  is  the  reason  why  I  feel  so  much  sympathy  for 
men  like  George  Jacob  Holyoake,  of  London,  a  man 
who  is  conscientiously  atheistic,  who  has  written  the 
most  touching,  tender,  and  heart-probing  book,  per- 
haps, that  was  ever  penned,  "The  Trial  of  Theism." 
I  never  in  my  life  felt  a  more  earnest  religious  spirit  in 
any  book  than  in  that.  And  yet  he  denies  a  personal 
God,  denies  God  in  every  sense  in  which  he  can  be 
defined  in  words,  and  declares  himself  to  be  a  simple 
atheist,  —  a  "  Secularist."  There  is  nothing  in  all 
literature  more  deep,  tender,  and  earnest  than  the  spirit 
that  pervades  that  book.  I  feel  myself  infinitely  more 
in  sympathy  with  that  atheist  than  I  do  with  thousands 
and  thousands  of  men  who  call  themselves  religious, 
and  lift  their  hands  in  horror  up  to  God,  as  if  I  turned 
my  back  upon  Him. 

This  is  the  religion  that  I  believe  in,  —  a  religion 
which  is  consistent  with  perfect  freedom,  and  presup- 
poses it ;  nay,  a  religion  that  aims  directly  at  freedom 
as  part  of  the  ideal  itself.  This  religion,  once  planted 
in  the  human  heart,  must  grow.  It  is  a  vital  seed, 
which  cannot  be  suppressed  or  killed  out.  No  drought 
will  kill  it ;  no  flood  will  kill  it.  Nothing  will  kill  it 
but  the  extinction  of  the  soul  itself.  So  long  as  that 
hunger  after  the  ideal  survives,  you  have  the  very  spirit, 
the  very  essence  and  epitome,  of  all  religions.  That  is 


380      FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

enough.  Leave  it  to  grow  as  Nature  wills ;  leave  it  to 
develop  as  human  nature  shall  direct ;  and  when  it 
comes  to  its  natural  growth,  depend  upon  it,  it  will  be 
something  most  fair,  beautiful,  and  lovely  to  behold. 
We  need  not  fear  that  any  monster  or  any  baneful 
Upas-tree  will  come  from  it.  No,  it  is  the  divine  seed ; 
the  seed  of  truth,  the  seed  of  beauty,  the  seed  of  happi- 
ness, the  seed  of  love,  the  seed  of  every  thing  that  can 
sweeten,  and  enlarge,  and  beautify  life.  —  Francis  E> 
Abbot. 


REASON  AS  GUIDE. 

WHO  shall  guide  man  in  this  path  to  perfection? 
How  are  we  to  distinguish  the  universal  from  the  tem- 
poral or  local  stand-point,  God  from  the  gods,  justice 
from  compacts  of  selfishness  ?  History  itself  as  little  as 
the  Bible  can  guide  us  in  this  matter,  for  they  contain 
both  the  ideal  and  the  history  of  development  towards 
it,  the  universal  and  all  particular  stand-points,  truth 
and  the  various  shades  of  aberrations.  If  the  Bible  is 
to  guide,  what  are  we  to  do  with  its  immoral  incidents, 
the  unreasonable  tales  and  myths,  the  local  or  temporal 
presentations  of  Deity  ?  The  religious  sentiment  called 
faith  cannot  guide,  for  it  is  evidently  uncertain.  Whence 
the  various  and  contradictory  views  of  the  Christian 
sects,  all  claiming  the  guidance  of  faith,  if  it  is  reliable? 
By  faith,  crusades  were  organized,  inquisitions  instituted, 
autos-da-fe  celebrated,  tens  of  thousands  were  massa- 
cred. How  could  faith  be  a  good  guide  ?  Imagina- 
tion cannot  invent  a  doctrine  revolting  to  reason  and 
conscience,  which,  at  one  time  or  other,  has  not  been 
adopted  by  faith  as  a  divine  precept.  By  faith,  all  sorts 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE   PLATFORM.     381 

of  superstitions  and  barbarities  have  been  preached, 
believed,  and  practised.  Faith  is  not  our  proper  guide. 
The  ethical  sentiment,  conscience,  must  guide,  it  may 
be  maintained  ;  but  this  is  also  an  unsafe  guide.  Con- 
science, too,  has  misguided,  and  does  misguide  individ- 
uals and  nations.  The  conscience  of  those  parents  who 
drown  their  new-born  daughters  because  they  cannot 
afford  to  give  them  the  proper  education  and  outfit; 
and  of  those  barbarous  sons  who  kill  their  feeble  and 
aged  parents,  because  they  are  burdensome  to  them- 
selves and  others ;  the  conscience  of  fanatics  and  en- 
raged mobs,  of  despots  and  their  obedient  coadjutors, 
is  human  conscience.  Conscience,  clearly,  is  an  unsafe 
guide. 

Reason,  the  understanding,  is  THE  guide  which  God 
has  given  us ;  the  highest  and  last  arbiter  in  all  matters, 
human  and  divine.  Reason  is  the  supreme  authority ; 
and  there  is  no  appeal  from  its  decisions.  By  reason 
we  distinguish  correctly  the  true  from  the  false,  right 
from  wrong,  the  universal  from  the  particular.  Faith, 
conscience,  history,  and  Bible  must  submit  to  reason. 
This  is  the  touchstone  to  distinguish  gold  from  brass, 
the  precious  metal  from  the  dross.  Whatever  cannot 
stand  the  test  of  reason  is  worthless,  arid  to  be  cast 
away.  This  was  the  case  in  all  ages  of  history,  and  will 
be  so  for  ever.  With  the  progress  of  reason,  faith  and 
conscience  are  purified,  humanity  is  elevated,  and  the 
ethical  feeling  sanctified.  Truth  is  the  only  Messiah. 
Reason,  says  a  Jewish  authority,  is  the  angel  (the  medi- 
ator) which  stands  between  God  and  man.  Reason  has 
redeemed  the  human  family  from  barbarism,  and  will 
complete  the  work  of  redemption.  If  I  speak  of  reason 
as  the  highest  authority,  I  do  not  mean  my  reason  or 


382  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

your  reason  ;  I  mean  reason  itself,  universal  and  eternal, 
in  which  and  through  which  the  human  family  is  a  unit, 
and  God  is  revealed  to  man.  Reason  must  distinguish 
the  universal  stand-point  from  the  particular  ones  in 
the  Bible  and  elsewhere.  Truth  is  the  seal  of  God. 
Reason  is  the  connecting  link  of  God  and  man,  —  like 
the  rays  of  light  that  connect  the  earth  with  the  sun. 
Therefore  science,  the  favorite  mistress  of  reason,  is  the 
ally  of  religion  and  truth.  Research,  criticism,  inquiry, 
and  all  other  exertions  of  reason,  are  divinely  appointed 
means  for  the  progress  of  humanity  to  its  lofty  ideals  of 
God,  truth,  and  happiness.  —  Rabbi  Isaac  M.  Wise. 


UNITY  IN  RELIGIOUS   SENTIMENT. 

RELIGIOUS  controversy  seeks  agreement  and  mutual 
understanding.  It  invites  the  development  of  indi- 
vidual views,  in  the  interest  of  a  final  reconciliation 
whose  harmony  is  preluded  and  prepared  by  musical 
dissonance.  Only  masters  possess  the  idea  of  this  sym- 
phony of  many  minds  in  which  all  severalties  conduce 
to  the  common  and  final  consent.  Not  once  in  a  hun- 
dred years  is  a  true  symphonist  born.  So  rare  is  his 
power,  that  his  works  increase  in  recognized  value  and 
authority  long  after  the  term  of  his  mortal  life.  Remote 
generations  seek  to  interpret  his  high  meanings,  and  flat- 
ter themselves  that  they  understand  him  when  their  hom- 
age flatters  him  no  longer.  Rare  as  is  a  symphonist  in 
music,  a  symphonist  in  morals  is  far  more  rare.  Few 
of  us  have  that  fine  sense  of  the  one  in  the  many,  and 
the  many  in  the  one,  which  enables  a  man,  by  one 
golden  thread  of  doctrine  and  example,  to  draw  all 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FEEE  PLATFORM.     383 

men  unto  him.  The  religious  spirit  in  man  is  the  spirit 
which  in  the  master  awakes,  and  in  the  multitude 
responds  to  this  sublime  invitation.  The  consideration 
of  supreme  subjects  may  promote  diversity  of  opinion, 
but  will  lead  to  unification  of  sentiment.  To  attain 
this  desirable  end,  each  and  all  should  be  mindful  of 
individual  limitations,  and  of  the  oneness  of  truth. 
Every  pair  of  antagonist  minds  should  see  between 
them  the  infinite,  which  the  finite  of  neither  can  pos- 
sess. Then  will  arise  a  noble  emulation,  not  of  self- 
illustration,  but  of  mutual  help.  Then,  however  one 
may  pray  and  the  other  respond,  Amen  will  be  a  clause 
of  peace. 

The  religious  progress  which  I  desire  and  expect  lies 
in  this  direction.  The  absolute  religion,  as  I  under- 
stand it,  is  not  a  featureless  abstraction.  It  is  not  a  be- 
lief without  a  church,  a  soul  without  senses.  It  is  the 
reality  of  faith  which  underlies  and  includes  all  sects 
and  all  creeds.  Not  as  if  all  were  alike  in  value 
and  merit.  For,  while  we  grant  one  origin  to  all  re- 
ligions, we  cannot  insist  that  all  shall  have  the  same 
issue.  The  primal  source  of  Philip  II.' s  bigotry  and 
of  Channing's  liberalism  was  the  same,  —  the  religious 
element  in  man.  The  difference  of  result  makes  one 
a  poison,  not  yet  worked  out  of  Europe,  the  other  a 
medicine  not  yet  worked  into  America.  Our  absolute 
religion  must  first  formulate  what  shall  be  called  re- 
ligion in  spirit  and  in  action.  When  it  recognizes  this, 
it  says,  "  This  is  religion.  This  man  is  or  was  relig- 
ious." Where  it  recognizes  the  most  of  this,  it  says, 
"Here  is  the  most."  » 

Religion  does  strangely  include  and  govern  the  whole 
man.  It  is  imagination,  it  is  energy.  It  is  zeal,  it 


384  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

is  charity,  it  is  love  and  aversion.  It  is  intellection 
and  enthusiasm.  It  is  all  of  these,  and  none  of  them 
singly.  And  as  it  is  composite  of  these  various  ele- 
ments, those  who  specially  represent  one  of  them  must 
show  appreciation,  not  disrespect,  to  those  who  repre- 
sent the  others.  The  world-church  is  a  divine  body 
from  which  no  member  can  be  spared.  The  happiest 
lesson  of  iny  later  life  has  been  this,  —  that  all  true 
souls  can  agree  in  supreme  things,  that  what  is  relig- 
ious in  the  intolerant  sects  is  civilizing,  energizing,  and 
reformatory,  as  well  as  in  the  tolerant  ones.  "Where 
the  religious  persuasion  accompanies  the  larger  intel- 
lection, it  removes  the  barriers  of  prejudice  and  super- 
stition. The  truly  liberal  build  no  citadel  for  themselves. 
They  only  patrol  and  keep  the  streets  of  the  free  city.  — 
Julia  Ward  Howe. 


NATURAL   RELIGION    UNIVERSAL    AND    SYMPA- 
THETIC. 

I  THINK  we  have  disputed  long  enough.  I  think  we 
might  now  relinquish  our  theologic  controversies  to 
communities  more  idle  and  ignorant  than  we.  I  am 
glad  that  a  more  realistic  church  is  coming  to  be  the 
tendency  of  society,  and  that  we  are  likely  one  day  to 
forget  our  obstinate  polemics  in  the  ambition  to  excel 
each  other  in  good  works.  I  have  no  wish  to  proselyte 
any  reluctant  mind,  nor,  I  think,  have  I  any  curiosity 
or  impulse  to  intrude  on  those  whose  ways  of  think- 
ing differ  from  mine.  But  as  my  friend,  your  presiding 
officer,  has  asked  me  to  take  at  least  some  small  part  in 
this  day's  conversation,  I  am  ready  to  give,  as  often 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     385 

before,  the  first  simple  foundations  of  my  belief,  —  that 
the  Author  of  Nature  has  not  left  himself  without  a 
witness  in  any  sane  mind ;  that  the  moral  sentiment 
speaks  to  every  man  the  law  after  which  the  universe 
was  made;  that  we  find  parity,  identity  of  design, 
through  nature,  and  benefit,  to  be  the  uniform  aim ; 
that  there  is  a  force  always  at  work  to  make  the  best 
better,  and  the  worst  good.  We  have  had,  not  long 
since,  presented  to  us  by  Max  Miiller,  a  valuable  para- 
graph from  St.  Augustine,  not  at  all  extraordinary  in 
itself,  but  only  as  coming  from  that  eminent  Father  in 
the  Church,  and  at  that  age  in  which  St.  Augustine 
writes :  "  That  which  is  now  called  the  Christian  relig- 
ion existed  among  the  ancients,  and  never  did  not  exist 
from  the  planting  of  the  human  race  until  Christ  came 
in  the  flesh,  at  which  time  the  true  religion,  which 
already  subsisted,  began  to  be  called  Christianity."  I 
believe  that  not  only  Christianity  is  as  old  as  the  crea- 
tion,—  not  only  every  sentiment  and  precept  of  Chris- 
tianity can  be  paralleled  in  other  religious  writings,  — 
but  more,  that  a  man  of  religious  susceptibility,  and  one 
at  the  same  time  conversant  with  many  men,  —  say 
a  much-travelled  man,  —  can  find  the  same  idea  in 
numberless  conversations.  The  religious  find  religion 
wherever  they  associate.  When  I  find  in  people  narrow 
religion,  I  find  also  in  them  narrow  reading.  Nothing 
really  is  so  self-publishing,  so  divulgatory,  as  thought. 
It  cannot  be  confined  or  hid.  It  is  easily  carried  ;  it 
takes  no  room;  the  knowledge  of  Europe  looks  out 
into  Persia  and  India,  and  to  the  very  Caifirs.  Every 
proverb,  every  fine  text,  every  pregnant  jest,  travels 
across  the  line ;  and  you  will  find  it  at  Cape  Town  w 
amonsr  the  Tartars.  We  are  all  believers  in  natural 


386  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

religion  ;  we  all  agree  that  the  health  and  integrity  of 
man  is  self-respect,  self-subsistency,  a  regard  to  natural 
conscience.  All  education  is  to  accustom  him  to  trust  him- 
self, discriminate  between  his  hisrher  and  lower  thoughts, 

*  O  O  ' 

exert  the  timid  faculties  until  they  are  robust,  and  thus 
train  him  to  self-help,  until  he  ceases  to  be  an  under- 
ling, a  tool,  and  becomes  a  benefactor.  I  think  wise  men 
wish  their  religion  to  be  all  of  this  kind,  teaching  the 
agent  to  go  alone,  not  to  hang  on  the  world  as  a  pen- 
sioner, a  permitted  person,  but  an  adult,  self-searching 
soul,  brave  to  assist  or  resist  a  world ;  only  humble 
and  docile  before  the  source  of  the  wisdom  he  has  dis- 
covered within  him. 

As  it  is,  every  believer  holds  a  different  creed ;  that 
is,  all  the  churches  are  churches  of  one  member.  All 
our  sects  have  refined  the  point  of  difference  between 
them.  The  point  of  difference  that  still  remains  be- 
tween churches,  or  between  classes,  is  in  the  addition 
to  the  moral  code,  that  is,  to  natural  religion,  of  some- 
what positive  and  historical.  I  think  that  to  be  the 
one  difference  remaining.  I  object,  of  course,  to  the 
claim  of  miraculous  dispensation,  —  certainly  not  to 
the  doctrine  of  Christianity.  This  claim  impairs,  to 
my  mind,  the  soundness  of  him  who  makes  it,  and  in- 
disposes us  to  his  communion.  This  comes  the  wrong 
way ;  it  comes  from  without,  not  within.  This  posi- 
tive, historical,  authoritative  scheme  is  not  consistent 
with  our  experience  or  our  expectations.  It  is  some- 
thing not  in  nature  :  it  is  contrary  to  that  law  of  nature 
which  all  wise  men  recognize;  namely,  never  to  require 
a  larger  cause  than  is  necessary  to  the  effect.  George 
Fox,  the  Quaker,  said  that,  though  he  read  of  Christ 
and  God,  he  knew  them  only  from  the  like  spirit  in  his 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     387 

own  soul.  We  want  all  the  aids  to  our  moral  training. 
We  cannot  spare  the  vision  nor  the  virtue  of  the 
saints ;  but  let  it  be  by  pure  sympathy,  not  with  any 
personal  or  official  claim.  If  you  are  childish  and  ex- 
hibit your  saint  as  a  worker  of  wonders,  a  thaumatur- 
gist,  I  am  repelled.  That  claim  takes  his  teachings  out 
of  logic  and  out  of  nature,  and  permits  official  and 
arbitrary  senses  to  be  grafted  on  the  teachings.  It  is 
the  praise  of  our  New  Testament  that  its  teachings  go 
to  the  honor  and  benefit  of  humanity,  —  that  no  better 
lesson  has  been  taught  or  incarnated.  Let  it  stand, 
beautiful  and  wholesome,  with  whatever  is  most  like  it 
in  the  teaching  and  practice  of  men  ;  but  do  not  at- 
tempt to  elevate  it  out  of  humanity  by  saying,  "  This 
was  not  a  man,"  for  then  you  confound  it  with  the 
fables  of  every  popular  religion ;  and  my  distrust  of 
the  story  makes  me  distrust  the  doctrine  as  soon  as' it 
differs  from  my  own  belief.  Whoever  thinks  a  story 
gains  by  the  prodigious,  by  adding  something  out  of 
nature,  robs  it  more  than  he  adds.  It  is  no  longer  an 
example,  a  model ;  no  longer  a  heart-stirring  hero,  but 
an  exhibition,  a  wonder,  an  anomaly,  removed  out  of 
the  range  of  influence  with  thoughtful  men.  I  submit 
that,  in  sound  frame  of  mind,  we  read  or  remember 
the  religious  sayings  and  oracles  of  other  men,  whether 
Jew  or  Indian,  or  Greek  or  Persian,  only  for  friendship, 
only  for  joy  in  the  social  identity  which  they  open  to 
us,  and  that  these  words  would  have  no  weight  with 
us  if  we  had  not  the  same  conviction  already.  I  find 
something  stingy  in  the  unwilling  and  disparaging  ad- 
mission of  these  foreign  opinions,  —  opinions  from  all 
parts  of  the  world, —  by  our  churchmen,  as  if  only  to 
enhance  by  their  dimness  the  superior  light  of  Chris- 


388  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

tianity.  Meantime,  observe,  you  cannot  bring  me  too 
good  a  word,  too  dazzling  a  hope,  too  penetrating  an 
insight  from  the  Jews.  I  hail  every  one  with  delight,  as 
showing  the  riches  of  my  brother,  my  fellow-soul,  who 
would  thus  think  and  thus  greatly  feel.  Zealots  eagerly 
fasten  their  eyes  on  the  differences  between  their  creed 
and  yours,  but  the  charm  of  the  study  is  in  finding  the 
agreements,  the  identities,  in  all  the  religions  of  men. 

I  am  glad  to  hear  each  sect  complain  that  they  do 
not  now  hold  the  opinions  they  are  charged  with.  The 
earth  moves,  and  the  mind  opens.  I  am  glad  to  be- 
lieve society  contains  a  class  of  humble  souls  who  enjoy 
the  luxury  of  a  religion  that  does  not  degrade ;  who 
think  it  the  highest  worship  to  expect  of  Heaven  the 
most  and  the  best ;  who  do  not  wonder  that  there  was 
a  Christ,  but  that  there  were  not  a  thousand;  who 
have  conceived  an  infinite  hope  for  mankind  ;  who  be- 
lieve that  the  history  of  Jesus  is  the  history  of  every 
man,  written  large.  —  Ralph  Waldo  JZmerson. 


MISSION  OF  JESUS. 

IT  seems  to  me,  that  the  nearer  we  come  to  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  the  nearer  we  shall  come  to  those  who 
appear  not  to  wish  to  assert  that  name  of  Christ  re- 
specting themselves ;  that  those  who  are  the  most 
Christian  in  spirit  will  say  the  least  about  it.  For  I 
suppose  that  Jesus  Christ  did  not  come  to  preach 
Christianity.  Christianity,  the  Church,  no  doubt,  was 
the  result  of  Christ's  preaching ;  but  he  did  not  come 
to  preach  it.  He  came  to  preach  the  truth ;  and  we 
shall  be  nearest  to  him,  not  when  we  preach  Christian- 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     389 

ity,  not  when  we  preach  the  Church,  not  even  when 
we  preach  Christ,  but  when  we  preach  Christ's  preach- 
ing, which  he  made  as  broad  as  the  truth.  The  Church 
was  the  result ;  but  it  was  a  result,  as  many  things  are 
results,  of  causes  which  it  did  not  resemble.  You  may 
have  been  in  some  great  cavern,  and  seen  the  sparkling, 
beautiful-shaped,  finger-like  stalactites  that  hang  on 
the  roof  of  the  cavern ;  but  from  the  droppings  from 
these  beautiful,  sparkling,  crystalline  stalactites,  there  is 
formed  a  dark,  amorphous,  yet  somewhat  interesting 
mass,  called  the  stalagmite.  The  original  truth  is  the 
stalactite ;  and  the  Church  is  the  dark,  amorphous  sta- 
lagmite. We  are  not  to  preach  that  stalagmite  of  the 
Church,  but  to  preach  the  truth  as  Christ  preached  it, 
or  in  the  spirit  in  which  he  spoke. 

Christ  is  regarded  as  a  mediator  between  God  and 
man.  A  mediator  undoubtedly  he  became  between  God 
and  man.  He  has  been  such  to  millions.  But  the  oflice 
of  a  mediator  is  to  introduce  ;  that  is,  Christ  introduces 
you  to  God.  Certainly,  then,  like  any  other  introducer, 
doing  his  office  generously,  he  leaves  you  to  private 
conversation  with  the  Being  to  whom  he  introduces 
you.  You  may  have  been  present  on  some  great  occa- 
sion, when  hundreds  or  thousands  of  persons  were  in- 
troduced by  one  man  —  the  mayor  of  a  city,  perhaps 
—  to  some  great  author,  general,  or  president ;  but  the 
moment  a  man  was  introduced,  the  mediator  stood 
aside,  and  let  the  man  speak  for  himself  to  the  person 
to  whom  he  was  introduced.  So,  I  think,  the  office  of 
mediator,  so  far  as  Christ  exercised  it,  was  simply  to 
bring  us  into  immediate  relation  with  God.  That  is 
the  true  mediation. 

Once  more.     I  think  Jesus  came  simply  to  be  the 


390  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

voice  of  the  moral  sentiment.  He  refers  you  back  to 
the  moral  sentiment ;  and  is  the  voice  of  that ;  and 
only  in  the  strength  of  your  own  moral  sentiment  can 
you  understand  one  word  that  he  says. 

I  think  if  the  two  sides  would  look  at  these  three 
principles,  —  that  Jesus  came,  not  to  preach  Christianity, 
but  truth ;  that  he  came,  not  to  be  a  mediator,  but  to 
bring  us  into  immediate  relation  with  God  ;  and  that 
he  came,  not  to  be,  and  never  pretended  to  be,  the 
author  of  the  moral  sentiment,  but  only  its  voice,  —  I 
say,  if  the  two  sides  would  look  at  these  three  prin- 
ciples, they  would  find  themselves  more  agreed  than 
perhaps  they  imagine. —  C.  A.  .Bartol,  D.D. 


DEATH  A  NATURAL  LAW  OF  LIFE. 

WHEN  Death  calls,  he  neither  deprives  us  of  the  virt- 
ues, nor  suddenly  relieves  us  of  the  vices,  of  which  he 
finds  us  possessed.  Both  go  with  us.  The  moral,  so- 
cial, and  intellectual  qualities  which  may  have  distin- 
guished us  in  this  world,  will  be  ours  in  another,  there 
constituting  our  identity  and  deciding  our  position. 
So  also  of  the  evil.  That  dark  vestment  of  sin  with 
which,  in  a  man's  journey  through  life,  he  may  have 
become  endued,  clings  to  him  through  the  death  change 
close  as  the  tunic  of  Nessus.  He,  too,  retains  his  iden- 
tity ;  his  earthly  shortcomings  determine'  his  spiritual 
state. 

I  believe,  then,  that  the  spirit  of  man  passes  the 
ordeal  without  other  metamorphosis  than  that  which 
its  release  from  the  fleshy  envelope  and  its  acquisition 
of  clearer  perceptions  effect :  undimuied  now,  unob- 


VOICES  FROM  TEE  FREE  PLATFORM.     391 

scured  by  the  heavy  veil  of  the  material,  gradually  re- 
lieved from  the  weight  of  bodily  grossness  and  physical 
infirmity ;  a  great  gainer,  too,  by  this,  that,  through 
the  agency  of  the  spiritual  senses,  there  is  opened  up 
a  wider  and  more  luminous  horoscope;  and  thus  drawn 
closer  to  the  great  Source  of  Wisdom ;  yet  essentially 
the  same  spirit  still.  It  changes  there,  indeed,  but  not 
by  miracle.  It  changes,  even  as  now  it  does,  by  the 
intervention  of  motive  presented,  by  the  agency  of  will, 
by  the  influence  of  surroundings ;  but  of  surroundings 
better  and  nobler  than  those  of  earth.  It  changes,  as 
it  changed  here,  by  its  own  aspirations.  It  inhabits  a 
world  of  progress  still ;  a  world  of  active  effort,  not  of 
passive  beatitudes,  nor  yet  of  irrevocable  doom.  While 
there  is  life  there  is  hope,  and  there  is  life  beyond  the 
veil. 

The  Christian  world  has  been,  and  still  is,  blighted 
with  false  conceptions  of  Death.  Death  is  not,  as 
Plato  taught,  the  opposite  of  life.  He  is  life's  best 
friend  ;  a  friend  through  whose  agency  life  is  embel- 
lished, ennobled,  perpetuated.  To  Death,  at  the  close 
of  a  life  well  spent,  man  owes  Paradise.  Yet  Ortho- 
doxy has  taught  us  to  think  of  this  greatest  of  bene- 
factors and  reformers  as  the  requiter  of  sin,  the 
Avenging  Angel,  the  fell  destroyer.  Men  robe  them- 
selves in  black  when  he  appears ;  mourners  go  about 
the  streets.  The  great  punishment,  the  evil  of  evils, 
the  primeval  curse,  declared  to  have  been  entailed  on 
man  by  Adam's  fall,  is  held  to  be  that  summons  which 
calls  him  hence.  Yet,  under  Omniscient  Goodness, 
nothing  so  universal,  so  inevitable  as  death,  ever  was, 
or  ever  can  be,  essentially  evil.  —  Robert  Dale  Owen. 


392  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 


TRUTH  IN  OBSOLETE  DOGMAS. 

HAVE  you  ever  heard  a  noble  musician  take  some 
very  simple  theme  which  to  you  a  few  notes  or  words 
would  represent,  and,  sitting  down  before  his  instru- 
ment, begin  to  dream  away  upon  that  theme,  until,  as 
the  moments  passed,  it  turned  into  great  orchestras  of 
sound,  and  tides  of  fresh  meaning  that  you  had  known 
nothing  of  come  rolling  in  towards  you,  and  you  felt  a 
freshening  from  your  little  theme  that  you  never  be- 
lieved was  in  the  words  or  the  thought?  Somewhat 
so,  I  think,  these  old  dogmas  of  the  recent  Christian 
past  come  freshening  with  full  tides  of  meaning  to  the 
thinker  of  to-day.  Let  me  instance  one,  —  and  yet  I 
hardly  dare  to,  —  not  a  doctrine  but  a  practice,  but 
you  know  practice  is  underlaid  by  doctrine :  the  vital 
and  the  inevitable  act,  as  I  think  it  is,  of  prayer.  Peo- 
ple say  to  us,  "  With  your  idea  of  God,  with  your  idea 
of  the  relation  between  yourself  and  God,  what  is  prayer 
to  you?"  As  if  in  the  act  one  stopped  to  analyze  the 
experience.  But  when  one  does  stop  to  analyze  the 
experience,  and  recognize  it  in  all  its  new  relations  to 
the  thought  of  God  and  of  ourselves,  then  he  sees,  of 
course,  that  the  old  meaning  of  prayer  is  dissolved  out 
ot  his  mind.  But  is  there  nothing  abiding  and  growing 
in  its  place?  The  old  thought  of  petition,  —  and  that 
to  most  minds,  to  most  Orthodox  minds,  at  least,  seems 
to  be  the  essence  of  "  prayer,"  —  that  thought  has  ab- 
solutely gone ;  and  has  nothing  remained  ?  Has  nothing 
come  up  to  larger  meaning?  Why,  every  thing!  The 
man  who  trusts  absolutely  does  not  beg.  The  man  who 
knows  he  is  forgiven  does  not  entreat  forgiveness.  The 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE   PLATFORM.     393 

shame  itself  is  pledge  of  that.  The  very  feeling  that 
when  you  are  praying  you  are  not  praying  to  a  person, 
but  with  a  person ;  the  very  thought  that  the  prayer 
comes  from  the  One  who  answers  it ;  the  very  thought 
that  the  "Thou"  and  the  "I"  are  one  in  that  act,  — 
is  not  that  a  nobler,  a  sweeter,  a  deeper,  a  higher  inspi- 
ration, than  the  old  thought,  even  to  those  who  value 
the  old  thought  most?  That  is  only  one  illustration, 
and  I  have  phrased  it  very  poorly.  It  is  hard  to  say 
what  one  thinks,  he  hardly  knows  all  he  thinks,  about 
such  an  act  as  that. 

Take  that  word  "Incarnation."  Do  you  know  a 
holier  thought  than  comes  into  your  mind  when  you 
say  that  word  ?  The  divine  opening  in  the  human ;  the 
divine  implanted  in  the  human,  from  the  foundation  of 
the  first  things,  pressing  upwards  into  visibility  all  the 
time ;  pressing  up  in  the  individual,  pressing  up  through 
the  race  until  a  higher  individual  is  formed ;  pressing 
up  from  the  poor  savage,  pressing  up  from  the  lowest 
sinner,  into  the  greatest  being.  What  tides  of  religious 
meaning  come  swelling  into  that  old  word  "Atone- 
ment " !  It  is  almost  the  butt  of  some  schools  of  relig- 
ious thought.  Do  you  know  a  more  true  law  of  the 
universe  than  that  law  of  atonement?  Not  concen- 
trated into  one  man's  history,  or  found  only  in  that 
man's  life  and  death,  but  a  law  going  through  and 
through  the  life  of  every  creature  on  the  earth ;  the  law 
of  a  force  which  lifts  us  by  the  sufferings  of  others ; 
the  law  of  a  force  which  lifts  others  by  our  sufferings. 
And  so  about  all  the  other  doctrines.  The  meaning 
glows  within  them,  until  the  old  words  seem  the  veriest 
last  year's  husks  to  the  great  resurrection  that  we  begin 
to  recognize.  —  William  C.  Gannett. 


394  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 


EADICAL  FAITH  AFFIRMATIVE. 

IT  is  a  mistake  for  any  of  us  believers  in  natural  re- 
ligion to  allow  ourselves  to  be  betrayed,  for  a  moment, 
into  a  negative  position ;  to  allow,  for  an  instant,  that 
the  burden  of  proof  is  on  our  side.  The  burden  of 
proof  is  on  the  other  side.  It  is  we  who  have  the  posi- 
tive, and  the  sects  the  negative ;  it  is  we  who  have  the 
affirmation,  and  the  sects  the  denial.  Each  little  sect 
builds  its  little  wall,  and  encloses  its  special  atom  of 
God's  truth.  It  denies  all  outside  of  the  wall,  and  then 
when  we  sweep  that  wall  away,  charges  us  with  denial. 
Our  answer  to  them  all  must  be  that  the  church  of  free- 
dom and  philanthropy  is  older,  larger,  and  grander  than 
they.  As  Luther  said,  we  say,  but  in  a  wider  spirit, 
"  We  are  the  Church,"  because  we  represent  no  platform 
narrower  than  humanity  itself.  Religion  is  the  natural 
instinct  of  the  human  soul ;  this  and  this  only  lies  be- 
hind all  these  petty  organizations,  and  gives  them  their 
being;  and  when  we  push  them  away,  and  come  down 
to  God's  solid  foundation,  it  is  no  denial,  but  affirmation. 
That  is  the  only  assertion ;  it  is  that  which  gives  the 
believer  in  natural  religion  strength,  not  alone  for  him- 
self, but  to  labor  for  others ;  because  he  represents,  not 
this  or  that  conventicle,  but  the  central  spirit  which 
they  all  embody,  the  love  of  God  and  man,  by  which 
alone  they  live.  Take  away  from  them  what  is  super- 
ficial, and  they  are  all  alike.  Take  away  a  few  ceremo- 
nies from  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant,  a  few 
technical  phrases  from  the  Trinitarian  and  the  Unita- 
rian, and  they  are  one  and  the  same.  Take  away  from 
the  Jew  and  the  Mohammedan  these  separating  forms 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     395 

and  dogmas,  bring  back  each  one  to  what  makes  his 
manhood,  and  they  are  all  the  same.  Behind  the  high- 
est utterances  of  the  world,  of  the  Vedas,  of  Epictetus, 
of  Marcus  Antoninus,  and  of  Jesus,  —  behind  them 
all,  and  greater  than  all,  is  the  eternal  aspiration  of 
humanity  to  the  absolute  truth  of  God.  It  is  that  truth 
to  which  the  radical  is  pledged,  because  it  is  natural 
religion  which  he  recognizes.  He  it  is  who  affirms,  and 
leaves  each  little  sect  of  each  little  religion  to  do  its 
own  denying. 

Look  into  your  books  of  piety,  and  see  the  unity  of 
the  great  expressions  among  all  peoples!  Look  into 
your  hymn-books,  and  you  see  that  the  hymns  which 
come  nearest  to  every  religious  soul  are  the  hymns 
which  are  not  sectarian,  which  were  not  written  by 
sectarians,  which  were  written,  in  many  cases,  by  persons 
cast  out  by  the  churches.  Those  hymns  which  are 
most  immortal  in  the  hymn-books  are  often  those  which 
the  churches  borrowed  from  poets  whom  they  left  out- 
side. Who  wrote,  "  While  thee  I  seek,  protecting 
Power,"  that  perfect  utterance  of  the  last  triumph  of 
religious  trust  ?  Helen  Maria  Williams,  the  friend  and 
imitator  of  Mary  Wollstonecraft.  You  may  still  find 
her  branded  as  a  heretic  in  the  biographical  dictiona- 
ries. Who  wrote.  "  Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee  "  ?  It  was 
Sarah  Flower  Adams,  the  friend  and  disciple  of  William 
J.  Fox.  In  her  lifetime,  she  would  have  been  disowned 
by  the  very  churches  which  now  cannot  draw  near  to 
their  God  without  borrowing  her  wings  to  fly  with. 
And  so,  through  piety  as  through  morality,  you  find 
that  all  forms  are  superficial,  and  all  souls  are  saved  by 
that  simple  religious  sentiment  which  lies  behind  all 
creeds. 


396  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

It  is  the  affirmation  of  the  free  religious  movement 
that  makes  it  strong.  An  affirmation  that  takes  in  not 
only  one  man's  belief,  but  all  men's  belief,  —  is  not  that 
a  positive  faith  ?  Here,  let  us  suppose,  is  an  organiza- 
tion that  has  met  this  week  somewhere,  and  every  man 
who  comes  upon  its  platform  comes  with  his  religion 
stereotyped  into  some  creed ;  and  every  thing  else  is 
shut  off  that  platform.  That  is  affirmation, is  it  ?  Yes: 
it  is  the  affirmation  of  one  thing,  and  the  negation  of 
every  thing  else.  And  when  the  old  religious  teacher 
and  his  opponent  come  together  on  this  platform,  and 
each  in  turn  speaks  his  mind  freely,  you  call  that  denial. 
We  call  the  other  the  denial,  and  this  the  affirmation. 
The  affirmation  that  recognizes  not  only  one  creed,  but 
the  dignity,  value,  and  worth  of  all ;  that  is  what  is 
recognized  here  as  religion.  I  do  not  understand  it 
when  I  am  told  that  my  attitude  is  that  of  denial  only, 
while  I  find  that  that  which  shuts  me  out  of  the  churches 
is  not  so  much  that  I  deny  some  little  things  which  they 
believe,  as  that  I  believe  whole  centuries  of  history, 
and  whole  races  of  humanity,  that  they  all  deny  ;  while 
they  shut  themselves  into  their  little  tabernacle,  and 
say  only  one  creed  has  any  foundation  in  it.  I  am  not 
separated  from  evangelical  religion  because  it  attributes 
the  divine  inspiration  to  Jesus,  but  because  it  denies  it 
to  all  others.  It  is  their  denial,  not  their  affirmation, 
which  separates  me  from  them.  When  they  tell  rne 
Jesus  taught  a  gospel  of  love,  I  say  I  believe  it.  Plato 
taught  a  gospel  of  love  before  him,  and  you  deny  it. 
If  they  say,  "Jesus  taught  it  is  better  to  bear  an  injury 
than  to  retaliate,"  I  say,  "Yes:  but  so  did  Aristotle, 
before  Jesus  was  born.  I  will  accept  it  as  the  state- 
ment of  Jesus,  if  you  will  admit  that  Aristotle  said  it 


VOICES  FROM   THE   FREE  PLATFORM.     397 

too."  I  am  willing  that  any  man  should  come  before 
us  and  say,  "Jesus  taught  that  you  must  loAre  your 
enemies:  it  is  written  in  the  Bible  ;"  but  if  he  will  open 
the  old  manuscript  of  Diogenes  Laertius,  he  may  there 
read,  in  texts  that  have  never  been  disputed,  that  the 
Greek  philosophers,  half  a  dozen  of  them,  in  words  as 
well  authenticated  as  any  literature  can  be,  said  the 
same  before  Jesus  was  born.  The  brotherhood  of  man 
is  a  sacred  thing  to  think  of,  —  a  sublime  thing  to 
teach.  When  the  Greek  tragedians  taught  the  brother- 
hood of  man  before  the  Christian  dispensation,  was  it 
less  sacred  than  it  became  after  Jesus  came  on  earth 
and  repeated  it?  There  is  this  difference  between  the 
attitude  of  natural  religion  and  the  attitude  of  any  sec- 
tarianism, even  the  widest  Christian  sectarianism,  that, 
while  natural  religion  recognizes  every  voice  of  God 
that  ever  spoke  through  the  soul  of  man,  Christian 
sectarianism  only  admits  the  utterance  of  one  pure 
soul  to  be  divine. 

Affirmation !  There  is  no  affirmation  except  the 
belief  in  universal  natural  religion  ;  all  else  is  narrow- 
ness and  sectarianism,  though  it  call  itself  by  the 
grandest  name,  compared  with  that.  It  impoverishes 
a  man  ;  it  keeps  his  sympathy  in  one  line  of  religious 
communication ;  it  takes  all  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
race,  and  says,  "  All  of  this  that  was  not  an  effluence 
from  Jesus,  you  must  set  aside ; "  and  so  it  makes  you 
a  member  in  full  standing  of  some  little  sect,  all  of 
whose  ideas,  all  of  whose  thoughts,  revolved  in  the 
mind  of  some  one  narrow-minded  theologian  who 
founded  it.  It  shuts  you  up  there,  and  you  die,  suffo- 
cated for  want  of  God's  free  air  outside. 

Therefore,  I  say,  it  is  an  affirmative  position  that  is 


398  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

to  rule  the  world ;  it  is  this  large  affirmation  of  univer- 
sal religion,  bringing  a  person  into  contact  with  the 
natural  instincts  of  the  human  heart,  that  enables  him 
to  deal  with  that  heart  in  all  its  wanderings,  to  reach 
the  conscience,  however  degraded,  and  to  raise  and 
strengthen  and  encourage  man  as  no  gospel  of  narrow- 
ness or  despair  ever  can  do.  I  do  not  believe,  any 
more  than  you  do,  that  the  mere  theology  of  a  few  dry 
metaphysicians  or  pedants  is  sufficient  to  move  the 
world.  Whether  they  are  radical  or  conservative,  they 
will  equally  fail.  The  theology  that  is  to  move  the 
world  has  got  to  have  heart  and  impulse  and  faith  in 
it,  as  well  as  mere  intellect.  The  religion  that  is  to 
move  the  world  must  be  such  a  religion  as  the  mother 
can  feel  by  her  baby's  cradle,  and  the  child  at  his 
mother's  funeral.  I  have  heard  theologians  quarrel 
about  texts;  I  have  heard  scholars  debate  amonsj 

*  O 

themselves  these  petty  questions,  "Who  was  it  first 
taught  these  doctrines  ?  Can  we  fix  the  year  and  the 
day  when  somebody  came  into  the  world  and  wrote  in 
some  books  the  golden  rule,  or  the  principle  of  love  to 
God  and  man?"  and  I  have  thought  to  myself;  "  Stop 
your  discussion,  and  go  home  and  take  counsel  of  your 
own  little  child."  Of  what  importance  is  it  who  first 
wrote  into  a  book  the  golden  rule,  when  you  may  go 
into  your  own  nursery  and  find  your  little  girl,  two 
years  old,  acting  the  golden  rule  by  her  own  lovely, 
childish  impulse,  before  she  has  ever  seen  the  inside  of 
a  Sunday-school?  Talk  of  putting  the  thing  into 
words!  There  was  never  a  generous-hearted  child, 
there  was  never  a  tender  sister,  who  did  not  enact  the 
principle  of  love  to  enemies  long  before  anybody  thought 
of  making  *a  book,  —  before  this  world  was  burdened 


VOICES  FROM   THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     399 

with  any  such  thing  as  learning.  The  child  teaches 
the  lesson  to  its  mother,  to  its  father;  God  sends  the 
child  into  the  world  with  the  lesson  already  in  it ;  and 
the  bigot  goes  home  from  his  parchment  of  doctrine, 
and  finds  a  holier  gospel  which  his  little  girl  teaches 
him  as  she  springs  into  his  arms ;  she,  in  her  unconscious 
innocence,  has  a  universal  religion,  and  he  is  nothing 
but  a  bigoted  sectarian  by  her  side.  ...  I  have  lived 
for  months  among  an  ignorant  and  degraded  people, 
whose  religion  was  of  the  lowest  type  of  Christianity, 
still  bearing  those  fruits  which  all  sincere  religion  will 
bear.  I  lived  for  two  years  among  those  who  had 
spent  their  lives  in  the  darkness  of  slavery,  and  had 
only  so  much  of  Christianity,  in  any  form,  as  their 
masters  had  chosen  to  give  them.  I  saw  the  results  of 
this  religion  among  them,  but  I  never  saw  a  man  among 
them  whom  the  simplest  truth  of  natural  religion  could 
not  reach.  I  never  had  occasion  to  wish  for  any  of  the 
tools  the  churches  give.  I  never  saw  reason  to  oppose 
or  alter  the  opinions  that  the  Southern  negroes  under 
my  charge  held,  but  did  I  ever  for  an  instant  believe 
that  their  Christianity,  ignorant  and  lowly  as  they 
were,  was  a  better  thing  even  for  them?  that  it  had 
more  affirmation  in  it  than  the  natural  religion  which  I 
held  ?  Never !  Of  all  the  religions  to  live  by  and  to 
die  by ;  of  all  forms  of  religious  opinion  to  carry  to  the 
sinful  and  the  suffering,  and  bring  them  back  restored  ; 
of  all  the  forms  of  religion  to  give  renewed  hope,  to 
relieve  despair,  and  to  enlighten  ignorance,  — I  believe 
that  natural  religion  stands  at  the  head.  I  ask  no  more 
than  that  with  which  to  reach  the  sinner  or  the  suffering; 
and,  if  I  cannot  reach  him  with  that,  it  is  my  fault,  and 
not  the  fault  of  the  instrument ;  and,  thank  God !  there 


400  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

are  plenty  of  others  who  can.  And  we,  who  owe  so 
much,  all  our  life  long,  to  the  gradual  swelling,  in  this 
community,  of  a  religious  impulse  which  is  greater  than 
any  in  the  past,  because  it  is  affirmative,  are  grateful  to 
bear  testimony  to  its  power.  We  can  never  own  it  as 
negative.  It  has  nothing  to  regret,  nothing  to  apolo- 
gize for.  It  is  to  us  as  much  the  hope  of  the  world,  as 
the  religion  of  the  Roman  Catholic,  the  Protestant,  or 
the  Mohammedan  is  so  to  him ;  and  it  is  greater  than 
any  of  them,  because  it  includes  them  all ;  and  a  day 
is  coming,  when  even  what  we  call  the  great  religions 
of  the  world  shall  show  themselves  but  sects,  and  when 
all  these  little  sects  shall  be  united  in  one  vast  I'eligious 
assemblage,  which  shall  march  into  St.  Peter's,  and  all 
the  great  old-time  cathedrals  of  the  world,  shall  take 
possession  of  them  all,  and  shall  celebrate  in  them  a 
religious  ceremonial  as  much  grander  than  any  that 
Rome  can  now  witness,  as  the  dome  of  the  sky  is 
grander  than  this  petty  building  which  contains  us 
here. —  T.  W.  Higginson. 


SOLIDITY    AND    POSITIVENESS    OF    RADICAL 
FAITH. 

I  WAS  severely  pitied  by  an  old  friend  this  morn- 
ing, because  I  was  coming  here  to  take  my  stand  upon 
"  that  rickety  platform  of  radicalism."  Now  that  I  am 
here,  it  seems  to  me  that  I  ana  as  safe  as  I  am  in  any 
place  in  God's  universe.  Underneath  the  platform  of 
radicalism  on  which  I  stand  this  morning,  I  find  the 
whole  of  past  time,  I  find  all  the  great  natures  of  all  the 
great  men  who  have  ever  lived,  who  have  ever  spoken 


VOICES  FROM   THE  FREE  PLATFORM.    401 

or  sung  a  word  for  God  or  for  humanity.  There  is  such 
a  phrase  as  the  "  Rock  of  Ages,"  as  applied  to  the  in- 
finite wisdom  and  strength.  Underneath  the  platform 
of  these  religious  ideas,  I  feel  the  Rock  of  Ages ;  because 
I  find  that  every  age  has  contributed  its  stratum  and 
deposit  to  build  it,  and  that,  standing  here  to-day,  I 
stand  upon  the  most  positive  place  I  can  find  upon  the 
earth,  since  I  stand  in  the  last  moment  of  time,  upon 
the  last  deposit  that  God  has  made  in  it,  mixed,  as  it  is, 
with  the  human  nature  of  the  present,  and  with  all  its 
needs  and  contingencies,  and  growing,  as  it  does,  out  of 
the  human  nature  of  the  past,  with  all  its  circumstances 
and  its  prophecies,  as  the  tree  grows  from  a  root,  for  the 
express  purpose  that  it  may  free  itself  from  the  ground 
beneath,  where  it  is  dark,  and  spread  its  full  mass  of 
foliage  into  the  light  and  air  and  rain  of  the  ever-present 
God.  And  if  I  undertake  to  scrape  off  from  that  tree 
its  bark  and  tetter  of  supernaturalism,  if  I  venture  to 
say  that  the  grain  of  the  tree  is  supremely  good  and 
sound  and  sweet,  without  taking  with  it  every  accre- 
tion and  parasite  of  the  past  which  has  made  its  home 
upon  the  outside  of  it,  I  do  so,  that  in  my  way,  with 
these  my  brethren  who  believe  in  Radicalism,  I  may  be 
able  to  show  you  what  a  grain,  capable  of  what  a  polish, 
what  an  exquisite  beauty  and  durability,  has  been  con- 
cealed underneath  that  bark  and  the  thin  crust  of  my- 
thologizing  that  has  gathered  around  it. 

I  never  felt  in  such  a  positive  place  in  all  my  life  as 
I  do  now.  I  never  felt  a  plank  beneath  my  feet  that 
was  so  thick,  so  deep.  Thousands  of  years  deep  is  the 
wood  of  which  this  plank  is  made ;  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  years,  with  their  rings  of  daily  pleasure  and  of 
daily  sweetness,  and  the  presence  of  the  Divine  Mind, 

26 


402     FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

and  the  smiles  and  tears  of  all  the  men  and  women  who 
have  ever  lived,  have  gone  into  the  depth  of  the  plank 
of  this  platform ;  and  you  are  called  here  this  morning, 
that  we  may  come  to  meet  you,  and  to  look  you  in  the 
face  and  say  to  you,  that  nowhere  else  can  you  find  a 
work  so  positive,  upon  material  so  durable,  with  thoughts 
and  feelings  so  far-sighted  and  so  prophesying.  For  we 
Lave  beneath  us  the  idea  of  the  Infinite  God,  Father  of 
all  men  and  women,  the  infinite,  ever-present,  ever- 
creating  Providence,  who  works  for  our  behoof,  and  for 
the  cause  of  his  laws  and  of  his  truths-,  by  laws.  I  feel 
beneath  me  that  vital  and  irresistible  tendency  which 
no  denomination,  no  creed,  no  man,  no  sect  can  stifle  or 
can  put  aside,  —  the  mighty  desire  that  lives  in  all 
hearts  to  know  how  it  is  that  God,  the  infinite  Father, 
brings  his  truths  to  pass,  and  makes  every  day,  and  day 
after  day,  a  perpetual  revelation  and  expression  of  his 
presence.  Beneath  me,  I  feel  your  desire,  and  the  de- 
sire of  all  mankind,  to  understand  God's  presence  upon 
the  earth,  in  every  righteous  cause,  in  every  central 
truth,  in  every  tendency  that  sweetens  and  harmonizes, 
in  all  social  and  philanthropic  science,  in  that  which 
drains  and  irrigates  and  defecates  infected  districts,  in 
that  which  saves  men  and  women  from  miasma  and 
cholera,  that  brings  pure  air,  clean  quarters,  and  a  great 
margin  of  space  for  comfort  to  all  mankind,  however 
miserable  they  may  seem  to  us  to  be  to-day.  I  feel  be- 
neath me  the  irresistible  desire  of  all  men's  hearts  for 
permanence  and  continuance  of  living,  either  within  or 
without  a  body,  —  the  old,  primeval  rock  of  personal  im- 
mortality. Is  there  any  thing  more  positive  than  that? 
What  will  you  bring  me?  What  will  you  bring  into 
this  hall  to-day  that  will  compare  with  the  positiveness 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.    403 

of  the  presence  of  the  infinite  God  and  of  his  truths  in 
the  heart  of  mankind,  and  the  desire  of  men  and  wo- 
men for  personal  continuance  of  existence  for  the  sake 
of  the  infinite  truths  of  God  ? 

Somebody  said  to  me,  also,  as  I  came  here,  "Your 
ideas  are  very  fine,  and  we  can  detect  them  scattered 
all  over  the  world,  like  gold  which,  the  most  widely 
distributed  of  minerals,  crops  out  upon  the  surface 
everywhere.  Your  ideas  are  beautiful;  they  may  be 
what  you  call  central  and  organizing  ideas,  but  you 
have  left  all  the  heart  out  of  the  concern.  You  have 
got  a  few  very  superfine  speculations  about  the  Divine 
Mind  and  human  nature,  but  you  have  omitted  all  the 
tenderness  and  pathos,  all  the  sweet  smiles  and  delights 
of  human  existence,  all  the  yearning,  all  the  longing, 
all  the  filial  clutching  for  the  Divine  Hand,  all  the  trust 
in  Providence,  and  all  the  sweet  content  which  makes 
one  day  succeed  another,  keeps  all  men  and  women 
alive  and  prevents  them  from  committing  suicide.  It 
has  all  gone  overboard.  You  have  emptied  the  baby 
out  with  the  bath." 

I  should  like  to  know  what  is  meant  by  the  word 
"  heart."  It  seems  to  me  when  people  use  the  word 
"  heart "  in  this  connection,  that  they  want  to  have  a 
monopoly  of  Providence;  that  they  would  like  to  have 
a  channel  of  Divine  Providence  within  their  house,  on 
tap,  where  they  can  turn  it  on  like  gas  or  water.  They 
are  not  content  with  trusting  to  the  infinite  laws  which 
are  inevitable  and  irrepressible,  whatsoever  we  may 
say  or  think  about  it ;  and  every  one  of  them  is  con- 
structed for  our  supremest  good,  and  with  reference  to 
our  best  advantage ;  so  that,  as  the  Scripture  says,  not 
even  a  sparrow  falls  to  the  ground  without  his  care. 


404  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

But  it  falls,  and  it  cannot  help  falling.  It  is  hard  for 
the  sparrow  to  drop ;  perhaps  it  twitters  a  continual 
dread  of  falling,  or  desire  that  it  may  be  saved  from 
falling.  But  shall  a  man  twitter  too,  and  try  to  bribe 
the  Infinite  Law  with  prayers,  and  to  besiege  the  In- 
finite Presence  with  supplications  that  this  thing  or 
that  thing  may  come  to  pass,  that  this  or  that  may  not 
occur,  or  that  he  may  be  saved  from  any  thing,  whether 
more  or  less  piteous  and  grievous,  while  all  the  time  one 
thing  is  pleasure  and  another  thing  is  pain,  that  is  joy 
and  this  is  grief,  all  the  time  there  is  law,  Providence, 
the  Infinite  Presence  ?  The  manliest  heartfulness  that 
I  can  conceive  of  is  that  of  the  person  who  throws 
himself  directly  into  the  bosom  of  the  Infinite  Pres- 
ence, and  says  to  it,  "  Come  what  may,  let  what  will 
happen  to  my  house,  to  my  family,  to  my  children,  to 
my  office,  to  my  future,  I  will  not  be  so  mean  as  to  ex- 
pect from  thee  comfort  merely,  to  derive  from  thee  im- 
munity, to  claim  a  share  in  providence.  I  want  to  be 
built  by  thy  providence ;  to  be  organized  by  that  which 
thou  shalt  send  me.  Here  I  am.  Take  me ;  take  the 
"whole  of  me,  —  my  heart,  my  soul,  my  emotions,  my 
intelligence,  —  take  my  soul  and  body  into  thyself,  and 
let  me  be,  in  deed  and  in  truth,  the  gentle  and  filial 
and  trusting  subject  of  thy  law."  That  is  what  I  mean 
by  having  a  heart  towards  God. 

And  we  have  a  heart  towards  man.  Do  you  tell  me 
that  when  Radicalism  takes  its  stand  upon  the  plat- 
forms of  America,  by  the  side  of  the  negro,  and  insists 
upon  his  rights,  upon  his  suffrage,  upon  his  immunities, 
and  upon  the  opportunities  that  we  ourselves  so  love 
and  enjoy,  and  so  confide  and  place  our  future  in, — 
that  we  have  no  heart?  Do  you  tell  me  that  when  we 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     405 

take  up  the  cause  of  woman,  and  desire  to  see  her  edu- 
cated like  ourselves,  and  standing,  if  she  can,  where 
we  stand,  and  doing,  if  she  can,  what  we  do,  —  at  any 
rate,  doing  what  she  can,  —  when  we  seek  to  give  her 
that  greatest  of  all  boons  that  can  be  given  to  God's 
children,  opportunity,  that  we  have  no  heart?  I  tell 
you,  my  radical  friends  and  listeners,  that  in  America, 
heart  is  belief  in  the  moral  law.  Yes,  it  is  belief  in 
justice,  it  is  belief  in  equality.  Heart?  It  is  the 
brotherhood  of  man !  —  John  Weiss. 


THE  TRUE  TEACHER  IN  RELIGION. 

Do  you  remember  that  story  in  the  life  of  Theodore 
Parker?  When  he  was  a  little  boy,  coming  home  from 
the  field,  one  day,  he  saw  a  little  animal  by  the  way- 
side, and  raised  his  stick  to  smite  and  kill  it;  but  some- 
thing, he  said,  distinctly  bade  him  stay  his  hand,  and 
he  let  the  little  creature  live.  When  he  got  home,  he 
asked  his  mother  what  it  was  that  told  him,  when  he 
wanted  to  strike  the  animal,  he  must  not  do  it ;  and 
his  mother  took  him  reverently  on  her  knee,  and  said 
to  him,  "  Some  people  call  it  conscience ;  I  call  it  the 
voice  of  God ;  and  if  you  always  listen  to  it,  you  will 
always  know  what  is  right,  and  you  will  never  need 
to  go  wrong."  From  that  reverent  teaching  came  such 
a  man  as  Theodore  Parker.  It  is  the  same  thing  that 
Socrates  meant  by  his  "  demon  ; "  it  is  the  same  thing 
which,  in  every  true  soul,  impels  to  noble  deeds,  or  re- 
strains from  those  which  are  wrong. 

We  come  into  the  world,  I  believe,  every  one  of  us, 


406  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

with  all  that  is  needful  in  ourselves,  if  we  will  only 
trust  it,  —  all  that  is  needful  to  help  us  on  and  up  to 
the  very  highest  heights  to  which  a  human  being  can 
ever  climb;  but  we  have  covered  it  over  by  dogma 
and  creed  and  sectarian  theory,  and  by  our  own  mis- 
deeds, until  these  angel  voices  that  are  in  us  cease  to 
be  heard,  —  not  totally  cease,  I  do  not  believe  they 
ever  totally  cease,  but  they  become  less  and  less  audible 
to  us.  But  if  we  learn  to  heed  their  faintest  whisper, 
reverently  and  obediently,  I  believe  that  there  is  no 
path  where  the  soul  asks  you  to  go  that  you  may  not 
safely  tread.  It  may  carry  you  to  the  burning,  fiery 
furnace,  but  you  will  come  out,  and  the  smell  of  fire 
even  will  not  be  on  your  garments.  It  may  compel 
you  into  the  lion's  den,  but  the  wild  beast's  mouth  will 
be  shut.  You  may  walk  where  scorpions  are  in  the 
way  of  duty,  and  you  will  not  be  hurt.  It  is  this 
"  inner  light ; "  it  is  not  a  text,  it  is  not  a  creed,  but  it 
is  this  in  ourselves  which,  if  trusted,  will  lead  us  into 
all  truth. 

I  said  I  did  not  believe  this  voice  was  ever  lost  in 
the  human  soul.  I  do  not  forget  that  men  grow  very 
wicked,  and  women,  too,  for  that  matter ;  I  do  not 
forget  that  men  and  women  sometimes  appear  to  us  so 
lost  and  fallen  that  it  seems  as  if  no  power  in  them- 
selves, or  any  human  power,  could  help  them  up ;  and 
yet,  to  these  worst  men  and  women,  in  some  hallowed 
moment,  is  the  word  given,  "  This  is  the  way :  walk  ye 
in  it."  And  if,  at  the  side  of  this  man  or  woman,  at 
that  very  moment,  is  some  helping  hand,  some  voice 
wise  enough  to  counsel,  he  or  she  may  be  started  to 
walk  in  that  way.  .  .  . 

I  do  not  believe  that  our  present  way  of  teaching 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     407 

religion  is  the  true  way.  I  know  this  platform  will 
help  it;  I  know  the  lives  of  all  good  men  and  women 
help  it;  and  yet,  after  all,  I  believe  that  the  world's 
true  teacher,  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  soul  and  its 
duties,  has  not  been  found.  I  believe  she  sits  in  every 
household,  and  by  the  side  of  every  cradle,  and  that  the 
true  priest  and  the  true  religious  teacher  is  the  mother. 
I  know  how,  from  the  earliest  time,  woman  has  been  in 
bondage ;  that  the  things  which  go  to  help  all  other 
human  beings  in  growth  and  symmetry  and  beauty 
have  always  been  withheld  from  her :  but,  after  all, 
I  believe  that  all  the  healing,  the  helping,  and  the 
building-up,  comes  through  woman.  "  The  seed  of  the 
woman  shall  bruise  the  serpent's  head."  I  believe  that 
she  who  should,  by  divine  right,  be  the  religious  teacher 
above  all  others,  is  to  take  her  place  as  such.  There 
comes  up,  to-day,  a  voice  asking  that  Harvard  College 
shall  be  opened  to  women ;  that  schools  of  science,  and 
whatever  else  will  give  breadth  of  being,  shall  be  open 
to  her ;  that  no  field  of  activity  shall  be  denied  to  her, 
if  she  can  occupy  it.  I  believe  that  all  the  signs  of  the 
times  point  to  woman's  freedom ;  and,  when  she  is  free, 
as  every  thing  else  in  nature  finds  its  place,  so  will  she ; 
and  the  woman  who,  by  God's  appointment,  inevitably 
takes  her  place  beside  the  world's  cradle,  will  sit  by  the 
world's  altar;  and  when  the  Theodore  Parkers  that  are 
to  be,  ask  counsel  from  her  lips,  the  answer  will  not  be 
unwise  or  ignorant  or  irreverent ;  but  the  mother,  her- 
self developed  and  taught,  will  be  able  to  be  herself  a 
priestess  to  the  little  one  at  her  side,  and  teach  him 
that,  as  he  grows,  up,  he  shall  be  his  own  priest,  his 
own  lawgiver,  and  that  the  holiest  oracle  is  in  his  own 
soul.  We  shall  not  see  this  ourselves,  because  it  is  so 


408  FREEDOM.  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

far  in  the  future.  As  are  the  ages  behind  us  which 
have  dragged  woman  down,  so  many  years  will  it  take 
to  build  her  up  to  the  place  where  she  shall  occupy  her 
real  throne ;  and  then,  with  her  sons  and  daughters,  as 
she  herself,  "  but  little  lower  than  the  angels,"  extend- 
ing helping  hands  to  whoever  needs,  aspiring  toward 
all  that  is  noblest  and  best  in  character,  reaching  after 
those  infinite  fields  of  knowledge  which  the  heavenly 
Father  spreads  everywhere,  the  world  itself  will  be 
so  changed  that  it  will  be  "Paradise  regained."  — 
Lucy  Stone. 


THOUGHT  AND   DEED. 

I  HAVE  seen  many  chai-med  days,  and  shared  a  sub- 
lime hope ;  but  this,  of  all  days  which  I  have  yet  seen, 
is  the  most  sublime ;  because  it  not  only  speculates  in 
the  most  transcendent  way,  and  absorbs  all  thought, 
and  all  peoples,  and  all  races,  and  all  bibles,  but  it  looks 
to  practice ;  and  you  will  all  be  disappointed  if  it  end 
merely  in  convention  after  convention,  annual  meeting 
after  annual  meeting.  You  say :  "  Work,  work,  work ! 
Work  lovingly,  work  deliberately,  not  wilfully."  You 
say  that.  Therefore  I  shall  look  for  the  next  step  to 
be  declared  hereafter  for  action.  Let  not  the  accusa- 
tion be  made  any  longer,  my  friends,  that  we  are  mys- 
tics, that  we  speculate,  that  we  have  delicious  and 
delightful  thoughts,  but  we  do  nothing.  A  friend  said 
to  me  to-day  :  "  Mr.  Emerson  !  Oh,  yes,  a  lovely  man, 
but  what  has  he  done  ?  "  Who  brought  us  here  f  Who 
is  the  father,  or,  if  not  the  father,  the  cousin,  at  least, 
of  the  thought  that  brought  us  here  ?  You  know  who, 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     409 

so  far  as  any  one  person  is  concerned.  This  meeting  is 
transcendentalism.  This  is  the  fruit  of  forty  years  of 
earnest,  private,  self-respecting  modest  thought.  There- 
fore, I  say,  the  more  modest  we  are,  and  the  less  we 
say  about  our  religion,  the  more  we  shall  possess.  It 
is  too  fine  a  thing  to  talk  about ;  it  is  a  precious  thing 
to  live  by,  and  to  show  in  action.  That  is  the  jewel,  is 
it  not  ?  Therefore,  I  say,  not  until  this  thing  is  incar- 
nated, not  only  in  one  man,  but  in  all  of  us,  and  we 
can  say  :  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one ;  "  "  he  that  hath 
seen  me,  hath  seen  the  Father  also;"  —  not  until  we 
say  that,  not  in  egotism,  but  in  the  sublime  and  de- 
lightful and  beautiful  personality  which  makes  us  one 
with  Him,  is  the  word  really  spoken.  So,  in  my  judg- 
ment, my  friends,  we  have  had  almost  enough  of  talk, 
we  want  action  ;  and  as  I  have  now  but  a  little  while 
to  stay  on  any  platform  in  this  world,  perhaps  it  will 
delight  me  as  much  as  any  one  to  take  part  in  the  ac- 
tion which  must  follow.  So  fine,  so  sublime  a  religion 
as  ours,  older  than  Christ,  old  as  the  Godhead,  old  as 
the  soul,  eternal  as  the  heavens,  solid  as  the  rock,  is 
and  only  is  /  nothing  else  is  but  that ;  and  it  is  in  us, 
and  is  us ;  and  nothing  is  our  real  selves  but  that  in 
the  breast.  That  is  the  religion,  and  nothing  else ;  not 
in  the  flesh,  but  speaking  and  acting  through  the  flesh ; 
that  is  it.  —  A.  Bronson  Alcott. 


RELIGION   AND    SOCIAL  SCIENCE. 

J 

RELIGION,  while  faithful  to  its  function  of  affording  a 

substantial  ground  and  an  encouraging  countenance  to 
the  high  spiritualities  of  the  human  race,  is,  and  must 


410  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

be,  concerned  about  labor  and  wages,  commerce  and 
capital,  health  and  houses,  civil  rights  and  laws,  and 
the  like.  It  will  be  asked  to  give  or  withhold  its  sanc- 
tion in  such  matters,  and  it  will  owe  an  answer.  Now, 
in  order  to  give  an  answer,  which  shall  at  once  be  good 
in  spirit  and  sane  in  judgment,  it  must  know,  not  only 
the  sovereign  claim  of  the  soul,  but  the  law  of  outward 
things^}  Here  science  is  its  proper  eye^  The  spiritual 
consciousness  knows  by  its  own  light  what  are  rectitude 
and  honor,  holiness  and  heroism,  adoration,  charity, 
noble  awe,  the  spirit  of  faithfulness,  the  spirit  of  truth  : 
it  does  not  know  by  its  own  light  whether  or  not  wine 
is  wholesome,  usury  beneficial,  eight  hours  of  labor 
better  than  ten ;  and,  in  the  attempt  to  pronounce  out 
of  hand  upon  these  matters  and  the  like,  it  has  made 
sad  mistakes.  Whenever  and  wherever  it  has  to  de- 
cide upon  outward  conditions,  and,  therefore,  to  take 
the  law  of  things  into  account,  it  is  dependent  for  the 
Banity  of  its  judgment  upon  other  resources  than  those 
which  are  native  to  it.  Here  it  must  supplement  its  own 
methods  by  those  of  scientific  investigation.  Science, 
and  science  alone,  as  I  think,  can  teach  it  to  be  practi- 
cal with  entire  sanity.  This,  too,  is  the  proper  cor- 
rective of  passionate  reform,  —  which  surely  needs  a 
corrective :  surely  it  is  time  that  for  the  methods  of 
agitation  were  substituted  the  methods  of  growth;  and 
for  the  harangue,  study,  and  the  sober  conference  of 
prepared  minds.  Sober,  modest,  temperate,  capable  of 
a  wise  silence,  able»to  wait  and  seek,  able  to  distinguish 
between  partial  and  perfect  knowledge,  speaking  when 
it  does  speak  in  the  modulated  tones  of  calm  knowledge 
and  clear  intellectual  conviction,  science  is  not  one  of 
those  dangerous  allies  which  are  liable  at  any  moment 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     411 

to  annul  their  services  by  excesses.  Like  religion,  it 
subdues  passion,  and  -respects  truth.  HA.  substitute  for 
religion  it  can  no  more  be  than  vegetable  physiology 
can  be  a  substitute  for  sunshine :  the  natural  ally  of  re- 
ligion, its  eye  for  truth  of  the  outward  world,  science 
should  be.  I  Well,  therefore,  may  modern  religion  stand 
in  the  door  to  reach  forth  a  cordial  hand,  and  say  to 
social  science,  "  Welcome,  younger  brother,  to  an 
honored  place  in  the  household  of  faith."  —  JD.  A. 
Was  son. 


PRACTICAL  PROBLEMS    OF  RELIGION. 

WHATEVEB  may  now  be  our  speculative  opinions 
concerning  the  Trinity,  the  atonement,  the  divinity  of 
Jesus,  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  or  the  future  condi- 
tion of  the  soul ;  whatever  change  these  opinions  may 
hereafter  undergo,  it  is  certain  that  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  concerning  love  to  God  and  love  to  man  will 
never  be  falsified  or  antiquated,  since  they  are  the  ex- 
pression of  a  sentiment  inborn  and  natural  to  the  human 
heart.  The  sympathetic  feeling  of  mankind  responded 
to  them  when  first  uttered,  and  will  always  do  so.  They 
do  not  require  the  support  of  logic,  nor  of  infallible 
authority,  for  they  furnish  their  own  evidence,  and  no 
miracle  could  make  them  more  impressive.  There  have 
been  disputes  about  doctrines ;  but  these  are  not  doc- 
trines :  they  are  practical  statements,  perceived  by  the 
intellect,  but  accepted  by  the  heart.  I  never  heard  the 
Good  Samaritan's  claim  to  goodness  denied,  even  by 
the  most  orthodox  Hebrews. 

And  yet  there  is  something  peculiarly  religious  in 
this  portion  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  It  is  not  only 


412  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  most  undoubted,  but  the  most  affecting  part  of  the 
Christian  religion.  It  is  hard  to  persuade  ourselves, 
perhaps,  that  there  is  not  something  particularly  relig- 
ious in  the  maintenance  of  an  opinion,  though  nothing 
can  be  more  absurd ;  and  so  we  are  in  the  habit  of 
speaking  of  a  man's  "  religious  opinions."  But  it  is  in 
the  heart  and  life  alone  that  religion  manifests  itself; 
the  intellectual  convictions  are  as  nothing  in  compari- 
son. 

Reasoning  in  some  such  way  as  this,  and  resolutely 
overlooking  the  fact  that  it  is  opinions  rather  than 
modes  of  life  that  have  been  the  source  of  religious 
dissensions,  I  have  fancied  that  the  time  might  come 
when  persons  of  all  shades  of  religious  belief  would 
cordially  unite  in  works  of  charity  and  reform.  And  I 
have  interpreted  the  word  "  Free,"  in  the  name  of  our 
Association  as  implying  this  liberation  from  the  tyran- 
nies of  sectarian  jealousy  and  dislike,  rather  than  as 
indicating  a  particular  form  of  belief  on  the  part  of  our 
associates.  Let  us  welcome  to  our  work,  as  we  invite 
to  our  platform,  the  champions  of  every  opinion  pro- 
vided they  are  willing  to  labor  with  us  for  the  elevation 
of  mankind.  Let  the  Catholic  who  loves  God  more 
than  his  creed  be  as  welcome  in  our  assemblies  as  the 
Jew  who  does  the  same.  Let  us  extend  to  Calvinists 
and  Churchmen,  to  the  disciples  of  Wesley,  of  Murray, 
and  of  Channing,  the  same  invitation ;  and,  whether 
they  join  us  or  not,  let  us  proceed  to  the  labors  before 
us. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  encouraging  signs  of  the  times, 
that  the  tendency  of  all  our  religious  organizations  is 
now  very  strongly  towards  works  of  charity  and  social 
reform.  The  oldest  and  the  newest  churches  feel  the 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.    413 

same  impulse  and  obey  it.  This  is  partly  because  the 
moral  evils  of  the  time  are  seen  to  be  great  and  grow- 
ing, while  the  remedies  which  the  Church  has  been 
wont  to  apply  have  ceased  to  be  efficacious.  The 
Labor  Question,  the  Woman  Question,  the  Question 
of  Education  for  the  poorest,  of  reclaiming  the  thief  and 
the  prostitute,  of  suppressing  intemperance,  of  dealing 
with  insanity,  of  diminishing  pauperism,  —  these  and  a 
hundred  other  questions,  derived  from  these  or  related 
thereto,  press  upon  us  for  decision  and  we  cannot 
escape  them.  If  we  have  a  true  religious  feeling,  we 
shall  not  try  to  escape  them  ;  we  shall  entertain  them 
all,  and  devote  ourselves  to  those  with  which  we  can 
best  deal.  One  person  will  teach  the  freedmen,  others 
will  secure  them  the  right  to  vote,  will  visit  prisons, 
found  hospitals,  open  new  avocations  for  women,  pro- 
claim a  truce  between  labor  and  capital,  diminish  pov- 
erty, and  banish  drunkenness ;  and  at  every  step  of 
every  reform,  Religion  will  be  present  to  give  her  sanc- 
tion. She  will  not  always  wear  the  vestments  of  the 
Church,  nor  speak  the  voice  of  tradition,  but  sometimes 
she  will  do  both ;  and  she  will  never  fail  to  attest  the 
truth  of  Pliny's  saying,  "  To  benefit  mankind  is  worthy 
of  a  God."  —  F.  B.  Sanborn. 


PHILANTHROPY  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

I  BEGAN  life  with  a  most  profound  faith  in  the  honesty 
and  in  the  efficiency  of  church  organization.  I  had  the 
most  entire  belief  (which  I  did  not  inherit)  that  the 
Church  contained  all  the  sincere  religious  feeling  and 
purpose  that  existed.  I  was  bayoneted  out  of  that 


414  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

conviction  by  experience.  My  eyes  were  opened  by 
the  facts  about  me ;  and  when  I  began  to  look  bne-k, 
with  eyes  anointed  by  the  facts  of  my  own  life,  into 
the  history  of  church  organization,  my  experience 
seemed  natural  enough.  For  instance,  the  Church,  as 
such,  gave  us  no  help  in  the  anti-slavery  effort  or  in  any 
other  radical  movement.  I  do  not  believe  that  the 
philosophy  of  organization  allows  the  possibility  of  a 
church  ever  helping  in  such  an  onward  movement.  We 
are  not  to  be  exacting.  We  are  to  allow,  exactly,  to 
every  phase  of  opinion,  lever  of  purpose,  organized  rep- 
resentative of  conviction,  its  actual  value.  It  seems  to 
me  that  organization  is  a  milestone  which  represents 
how  far  opinion  had  travelled  when  it  crystallized  into 
an  organization.  You  cannot  expect  of  that  organiza- 
tion, necessarily  in  its  shape  as  an  organization,  an 
acceptance  of  any  new  idea.  It  will  discharge,  unex- 
pectedly, its  full  duty  if  it  even  maintains  life  enough 
bravely  to  represent  the  opinion  which  created  it ;  which 
in  seven  cases  out  of  ten  it  never  does.  It  seems  to  me 
that  every  organization  is  the  representation  of  an  idea, 
but  never  can  go  beyond  it.  It  never  has  been,  or 
rarely  has  been,  faithful  to  the  application  of  an  idea. 
It  has  fallen  back  into  the  worship  of  the  fathers.  It 
lias  limited  itself  by  the  application  made  by  its  own 
saints.  For  instance,  Luther  claimed  the  right  for 
f bodies  of  men  to  go  out  and  represent  Catholicism; 
but  Luther  did  not  reach  the  point  of  allowing  the  in- 
dividual to  do  that ;  and  when  some  of  his  own  followei  s 
went  to  that  extent,  the  public  sentiment  of  the  era 
being  unable  to  bear  them  up,  they  were  surged  and 
swamped  in  the  age,  and  forgotten.  The  age  was  not 
ready  for  such  individuals.  It  could  not  hold  them  up. 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     415 

Succeeding  them  came  Congregationalism,  having  the 
idea  that  a  church,  a  small  collection,  could  assert  the 
right  of  individual  judgment  as  against  a  large  body. 
That  was  another  gain.  Then  came  the  Brownists, 
the  Independents,  and  the  Baptists,  asserting  the  right 
of  individual  judgment  within  the  line  of  what  was 
considered  the  inspired  rule  of  the  Scriptures.  That 
was  another  gain.  But  when  the  Quaker  went  out 
beyond  that,  and  claimed  the  right  of  individual  judg- 
ment, not  subject  to  the  inspiration  of  a  book,  they 
cried  out  "heretic  ;"  they  repudiated  him,  inevitably. 
Were  they  not  all  good  ?  Yes,  undoubtedly.  Did  not 
Luther  do  a  great  deal  of  good  ?  Certainly.  Did  not 
the  Congregation alists  ?  Indubitably.  Does  not  the 
Church  of  to-day  do  a  great  deal  of  good  ?  Certainly 
it  does.  It  takes  up  the  admitted  truths,  the  respect- 
able truths ;  it  gathers  them  into  shape,  applies  them 
to  admitted  evils ;  cheap  soup  and  the  primer,  giving 
away  money,  perhaps  the  tenth  of  your  income ;  the 
duty  of  not  allowing  your  neighbors  in  the  next  street 
to  starve ;  the  duty  of  sending  the  truth  you  have  got 
to  somebody  else,  —  all  good,  excellent !  The  only 
weakness  you  find  in  organization  is  when  you  demand 
of  it  to  walk.  The  fluid  is  a  force ;  the  solid  is  a  weight. 
While  the  river  is  a  fluid  it  moves.  You  must  not  expect 
motion  of  that  which  is  crystallized  ;  but  it  has  its  use. 
When  I  was  on  the  Mississippi's  banks  lately,  we  walked 
across  the  river.  The  ice  was  useful.  It  was  church  or- 
ganization. The  fluid  of  the  last  summer  crystallizes  into 
a  useful  bridge ;  but  if  the  river  subsides,  and  leaves  ten 
feet  of  vacancy  below,  the  bridge  will  fall.  If,  with  the 
advancing  spring,  the  water  rises,  it  will  carry  the  whole 
Church  into  the  ocean  of  absolute  truth ;  it  will  carry 


416          FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

the  ice  away.  But  you  must  not  expect  motion  of  the 
crystallized  sentiment  which  has  become  a  church. 
There  was  great  truth  in  what  the  old  Italian  said  in 
the  fifteenth  century  :  "There 'has  not  been  a  Christian 
to  die  in  his  bed  for  two  hundred  years,"  —  that  is, 
there  had  not  been  a  real  Christian  man  who  looked 
about  him,  saw  the  needs  and  met  the  lessons  of  the 
actual  day,  with  nothing  in  his  own  soul  between  him 
and  God,  who  led  a  comfortable  life.  He  must  al \vays 
go  out  with  the  Baptist  into  the  wilderness.  He  need 
not,  perhaps,  always  reproach  the  Church  that  staid  at 
home  and  did  its  own  business,  —  acted  up  to  its  light. 
It  has  its  uses.  His  duty  is,  as  it  seems  to  me,  to  con- 
fess the  light  God  gives  him.  As  was  beautifully  said 
as  I  stood  by  the  coffin  of  a  deceased  friend  this  week, 
"Her  right  never  rebuked  another's  wrong."  Perhaps 
I  should  vary  the  statement  a  little  ;  but  what  I  mean 
is,  there  is  no  need,  necessarily,  of  rebuking  short-com- 
ing until  it  passes  into  dishonest  antagonism ;  until 
it  seeks  to  throw  a  net^under  your  feet,  and  trip  you 
up  ;  until  it  thunders  after  you  misrepresentation  and 
scandal,  and  cries  out,  "  schismatic  !  "  "  fanatic  !  "  "  in- 
fidel ! "  As  long  as  it  can  recognize  its  own  place,  and 
let  you  take  yours,  it  is  to  be  fellowshipped,  not  as  a 
force  in  the  movement  of  society,  but  as  a  breakwater 
and  anchor  to  keep  what  we  have  gained.  That  is  my 
idea.  In  the  mean  time,  we  are  all  to  set  to  work  and 
preach  whatever  God  or  man  has  taught  us  of  the  finest 
laws  of  the  religious  sentiment,  and  each  age  will  see 
more  and  more  of  it.  Luther  was  honest ;  but  Carl- 
stadt  was  necessary  in  a  certain  sense,  because  he  saw 
more. 

The  records  of  Christianity  hold,  it  seems  to  me,  a 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     417 

very  large  measure  of  the  lessons  that  social  science 
needs.  In  the  first  place,  the  Christian  records  are 
principles.  The  Church  is  an  alleviative.  It  ap- 
proaches evils  to  alleviate  them,  not  to  cure  them. 
That  is  not  the  New  Testament  method.  There  are 
two  ways  of  touching  evils.  If  the  gas  was  escaping 
in  this  room,  we  should  open  the  ventilators  and  relieve 
ourselves.  That  is  relief.  To-morrow  the  superinten- 
dent would  send  for  a  gasfitter,  and  he  would  stop  the 
leak.  That  is  cure.  Now,  as  I  look  at  it,  all  action  of 
the  Church  approaches  poverty  to  make  it  comfortable  ; 
it  approaches  crime  to  endeavor  to  soften  it ;  it  ap- 
proaches prostitution  to  shield  it  from  temptation. 
That  is  relief.  That  is  opening  the  windows  to  get 
rid  of  the  leaking  gas.  But  social  science  and  the 
religious  philosophy  of  the  New  Testament,  while  they 
attempt  all  that,  pi-escribe  that  the  really  religious  intel- 
lect shall  seek,  not  relieve,  but  cure.  .  .  . 

If  there  is  any  strength,  God  gave  it  in  order  that 
it  might  hold  up  weakness,  supplement  weakness.  If 
there  is  any  knowledge,  God  gave  it  that  it  might  sit 
down  side  by  side  with  ignorance,  and  put  its  arm 
around  its  neck,  and  divide.  If  there  is  any  wealth, 
it  is  only  a  trust,  and  the  poorest  man  you  can  find  in 
the  neighborhood  is  your  co-trustee.  That  is  Christi- 
anity, as  I  read  it.  That  is  Christianity ;  and,  singu- 
larly enough,  we  generally  leap  right  off,  and  say,  that 
is  the  Church.  But  take  the  amelioration  of  punish- 
ment, for  instance,  as  an  illustration  of  my  meaning, — 
the  old  vindictive  theory  of  the  Jews,  and  the  European 
idea,  that  hangs  a  man  to  satisfy  the  passions  of  society. 
That  lived  a  great  while.  Then  came  the  exemplary 
idea,  that  I  must  be  hung  to  make  you  better ;  which 


418  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

sacrificed  me  to  your  welfare.  That  held  its  own  a 
great  while.  Those  two  were  the  pet  ideas  of  the 
Christian  Church.  We  have  got  a  new  idea  now,  and 
it  is  this :  that  the  moment  society  has  seized  a  man, 
society  owes  him  education,  moral  development,  pro- 
tection, emolument.  Having  put  him  within  stone 
walls  for  its  own  defence,  it  shall  thereupon  begin  the 
duty  it  owed  to  him  in  his  cradle,  and  neglected ;  that 
is,  begin  to  educate  him.  Prisons  are  moral  hospitals. 
God  let  that  man  commit  a  murder  in  order  that  society 
might  get  the  right  to  take  hold  of  him,  and  do  what 
God  holds  it  guilty  for- not  doing  before, — educate 
him.  Where  did  you  get  that  idea?  Got  it  from 
Beccaria,  got  it  from  Voltaire,  got  it  from  Romilly, 
got  it  from  Dumont,  got  it  from  Bentham,  —  men,  who, 
if  they  ever  were  inside  of  a  church  door,  would  be 
held  as  heretics,  —  got  it  from  Brougham,  whom  the 
Church  denounced  as  an  infidel.  Never  has  there 
been  a  man  in  advance  of  the  age,  on  this  question  or 
in  any  other  way,  who  had  not  been  driven  into  the 
wilderness  by  the  Church  of  the  day.  But  whence 
really  came  this  idea  of  the  treatment  of  persons,  for 
instance  ?  It  came  from  the  great  normal  root  of 
Christianity,  —  the  sacredness  of  the  individual.  Relig- 
ion, having  taken  hold  of  a  man,  no  longer  deems  him 
a  chip  of  a  block,  a  part  of  the  government,  a  unit  that 
goes  to  make  up  the  State ;  it  no  longer  looks  at  him 
in  the  mass,  —  a  hierarchy,  an  aristocracy.  That  single 
unit  of  a  soul  and  God,  —  these  are  the  only  two  things 
in  the  universe,  in  the  contemplation  of  religious  prin- 
ciple. The  sacredness  of  the  individual !  What  right 
Lave  you  to  hang  me  ?  Stuart  Mill  is  the  only  infidel 
who  ever  failed  to  see  this,  but  he  is  followed  by  nine 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.     419 

hundred  and  ninety-nine  out  of  a  thousand  Christians, 
so  called.  But  those  men  called  infidels  studied  social 
science  ;  they  studied  philanthropy ;  they  studied  prin- 
ciple ;  they  studied  it  in  human  instincts.  Called  infi- 
dels,—  for  there  are  men  called  infidels  who  really  are 
Christians,  as  there  are  men  calling  themselves  Chris- 
tians who  really  are  Infidels,  without  suspecting  it. 
I  have  met  in  my  day  many  specimens  of  both  these 
classes.  That  man  is  a  Christian  whose  life  and  ethics 
grow  out  of  the  central  root  of  Christianity ;  no  matter, 
if  in  his  ignorance  or  his  prejudice  he  disowns  the 
name.  That  man  is  'an  Infidel  who  is  not,  with  his 
whole  heart,  willing  to  bear  his  brother's  burden;  no 
matter  how  broad  his  phylactery,  how  regular  his 
church-membership  papers,  or  how  loud  his  profession 
of  Liberalism  or  Radicalism.  .  .  . 

God's  method  of  education  is  to  lay  responsibility  on 
the  human  soul.  The  doctors  say  there  is  electricity 
enough  in  the  brain  to  cure  any  disease,  if  you  can  only 
rouse  it.  So  there  is  moral  power  enough  in  every 
man  to  make  him  a  man,  if  you  could  only  rouse  it ; 
and  responsibility  rouses  it.  Take  a  girl,  a  mere  pop- 
injay, a  toy;  she  gets  married,  and  people  say:  "  What 
a  mere  child  that  is  to  have  children ! "  She  has  one 
or  two  children,  and  then  her  husband  is  taken  from 
her  side.  How  wisely  she  plans ;  how  patiently  she 
watches ;  how  she  opens  careers  for  them ;  how  she 
guards  her  children's  interests;  how  she  begs  from 
one  and  from  another,  and  earns  from  a  third,  the 
means  to  give  that  boy  an  education,  sheltering  the 
girl  meanwhile !  What  a  wonderful  being !  We  never 
knew  her.  Where  were  all  those  powers  hidden  ? 
How  did  she  get  them  ?  Necessity  brought  them  out  j 


420     FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

God  created  them.  If  you  had  given  her  a  career 
before,  you  would  have  seen  them  all.  You  were 
beginning  to  move  in  the  line  of  God's  law  when  you 
found  her  a  widow,  with  those  two  children  on  her 
brain  and  heart.  You  had  got  into  the  line  of  the 
great  necessity  which  God  meant  should  unfold,  educate, 
and  lift  up  every  human  being.  You  did  not  need 
the  magnet  that  a  mechanic  filled  up  with  electricity 
—  that  is,  a  benevolent  society  —  for  her ;  the  great 
natural  magnetism  of  the  earth,  that  is,  God's  law, 
made  her  gravitate  towards  a  career  and  a  success. 

The  value  of  social  science  to  men  of  radical  faith 
and  purpose  is,  that  it  digs  down  to  the  root  of  princi- 
ple. It  does  not  seek  alleviation  merely ;  it  does  not 
seek  what  the  Church  can  give ;  it  faces  the  great  prob- 
lems of  the  hour.  Negro  slavery  was  a  very  great 
question,  but  still,  to  a  certain  extent,  it  was  a  limited 
one ;  it  applied  to  a  race.  Its  value  was  that  it  forced 
us,  in  the  conflict  with  the  Church,  in  the  conflict  with 
the  State,  to  dig  down  to  the  principles  which,  when 
they  grew  up,  covered  all  kindred  interests. 

Seek  out,  publish,  and,  as  fast  as  possible,  bring  society 
into  harmony  witli  the  laws  of  justice.  This  is  social 
science.  All  Labor  asks  is  justice,  not  charity ;  all  wo- 
man asks  is  justice,  not  pity ;  all  the  negro  asks  is 
justice,  not  humanity.  Indeed,  where  is  the  treasury 
full  enough  to  pay  that  debt  ?  All  crime  asks  is  jus- 
tice, not  sympathy.  Who  shall  teach  us  the  full  mean- 
ing of  this  great  word,  JUSTICE  ?  "  Owe  no  man 
any  thing."  When  that  command  is  obeyed,  Social 
Science  will  be  dazzled  out  of  sight  by  the  millen- 
nium. —  Wendell  JPhillips. 


VOICES  FROM  TEE  FREE  PLATFORM.    421 


IMPROVEMENT  OF  MAN  ON  EARTH. 

I  THINK  there  is  hope  when  a  religion  is  presented 
to  the  people  which  is  not  only  in  favor  of  free  thought 
and  free  speech,  but  which  endeavors  also  to  benefit 
the  physical  condition  of  humanity.  There  never  was, 
there  never  can  be,  such  a  thing  as  true  pleasure  in 
vice  or  crime ;  and  yet  the  land  is  full  of  them,  because, 
as  I  think,  the  social  condition  of  the  people  is  not  cared 
for  as  it  ought  to  be  at  the  present  moment.  I  agree 
with  the  sentiment  of  that  great  social  reformer,  Robert 
Owen,  that  the  characters  of  men  are  formed  for  them, 
instead  of  by  them ;  and  consequently  I  think  the  in- 
fluence of  circumstances  in  this  country,  rather  than 
any  natural  or  inherent  depravity  in  mankind,  accounts 
for  the  degradation  and  vice  and  crime  that  prevail  in 
every  section  of  the  country.  Let  us  not,  then,  suppose 
that  it  is  owing  to  any  natural  or  inherent  depravity 
that  this  state  of  things  exists,  but  only  in  the  fact  that 
the  true  remedy  for  social  evils  has  not  yet  been  put 
into  practice ;  but  when  the  remedy  is  applied,  the 
reform  will  be  complete.  And  it  is  a  great  sign  of 
the  times,  that  radicals  and  liberals  and  free-thinking 
men  are  doing  what  lies  in  their  power  for  the  promo- 
tion of  this  great  reform. 

Let  men,  if  they  can  do  no  better,  dream  of  a  here- 
after, to  which  I  have  no  kind  of  objection ;  but  the 
hereafter  must  be  according  to  the  present,  and  if 
people  live  well  in  the  present,  they  have  the  best 
preparation  for  the  future.  But  to  go  into  the  future 
unprepared  by  the  present  may,  perhaps,  for  any  thing 
I  know  to  the  contrary,  be  the  same  routine  over  again. 


422  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

But  be  that  as  it  may,  I  am  getting  beyond  my  depth ; 
I  do  not  know  any  thing  about  these  matters ;  I  do 
not  pretend  to  know.  Being  finite,  frail,  and  imper- 
fect, I  do  not  presume  to  understand  the  infinite,  and 
therefore  I  confine  my  thoughts  here ;  for  I  think  there 
is  enough  to  do  in  this  world,  and  more  than  enough, 
.to  occupy  all  our  time  in  improving  the  condition  of 
the  people  here.  And  those  who  believe  in  the  here- 
after should  not  object  to  the  doctrine,  because  he  who 
is  right  to-day  will  probably  be  right  to-morrow.  That 
there  are  those  in  the  community  who  entertain  these 
aspirations,  and  are  endeavoring  by  the  aid  of  social 
science  to  improve  society  and  even  religion  itself,  is 
one  of  the  hopeful  signs  of  the  times.  —  Horace  Seaver. 


ESSENTIALS  OF  FAITH. 

As  regards  the  subject  upon  which  so  much  has  been 
written  of  late,  the  importance  of  faith  in  a  personal 
God,  we  shall  be  content  to  let  our  limited  knowledge 
remain  where  it  is,  while  we  have  all  that  science  can 
reveal,  both  that  which  is  self-evident,  which  is  natural, 
which  is  spiritual,  and  that  which  belongs  to  outward 
nature,  —  which  it  needs  not  that  I  enlarge  upon,  ig- 
norant as  I  am,  after  all  that  has  been  said.  But  I 
think  that  this  shall  be  found  to  suffice,  and,  as  has  just 
been  expressed,  that  it  shall  pervade  the  universe  of 
God,  and  bring  us  into  the  kingdom,  which  is  nigh 
even  at  the  doors;  and  that  we  need  not  enter  into  any 
speculations  as  regards  the  future,  as  regards  immortal- 
ity, but  that  we  all  shall  learn  to  rest  content  with  the 
limited  knowledge  we  have,  and  be  confident,  by  ful- 


VOICES  FROM  THE  FREE  PLATFORM.    423 

ness  of  faith,  that  that  which  is  best  for  us  shall  and 
will  be  ours,  while  we  do  not  endeavor  by  our  specula- 
tions to  make  out  or  build  up  a  heaven.  I  remember, 
when  Dr.  Channing,  years  ago,  at  our  house,  attempted 
to  advocate  his  views,  and  to  show  what  everlasting 
progress  there  would  be  in  the  hereafter,  I  told  him  it 
was  as  interesting  to  me  as  any  speculation  to  which  I 
had  ever  listened  on  the  subject,  but  he  must  allow  me 
to  say  that  it  was  speculation  still.  I  want  we  should 
tread  under  foot  our  speculations,  and  every  thing  that 
will  mingle  aught  that  is  uncertain  with  the  religion 
which  we  have  heard  presented  to  us  to-day,  —  which 
is  certain,  which  is  sure ;  for  that  which  is  self-evident 
needs  no  argument.  And  so  we  come  near  to  the 
beautiful  truths  and  testimonies  that  rise  out  of  this 
pure  religion  and  undefiled,  that  need  no  scholastic 
learning,  that  need  no  pulpit  explanations.  They  are 
clear  truth,  justice,  love,  —  highest,  noblest,  finest  in- 
stincts of  the  human  heart  and  mind,  which  we  are  to 
apply  to  all  that  we  can  imagine  of  the  unseen  and 
unknown.  That  divine  power  will  be  ours,  if  we  seek 
it ;  and  when  these  principles  are  stated  they  are  self- 
evident  ;  they  need  no  learned  oratory,  and  it  is  not 
employed  in  regard  to  them.  You  do  not  heaiyin  any 
of  the  pulpits,  a  definition  of  what  love,  and  justice, 
and  mercy,  and  right  are.  You  know,  and  all  know, 
that  they  are  innate,  self-defined.  Therefore,  I  say, 
preach  your  truth  ;  le,t  it  go  forth,  and  you  will  find, 
without  any  notable  miracle,  as  of  old,  that  every  man 
will  speak  in  his  own  tongue  in  which  he  was  born. 
And  I  will  say,  that  if  these  pure  principles  have  their 
place  in  us,  and  are  brought  forth  by  faithfulness,  by 
obedience,  into  practice,  the  difficulties  and  doubts 


42-4  FREEDOM  AND  FELLOWSHIP. 

that  we  may  have  to  surmount  will  be  easily  conquered. 
There  will  be  a  power  higher  than  these.  Let  it  be 
called  the  Great  Spirit  of  the  Indian,  the  Quaker  "  in- 
ward light "  of  George  Fox,  the  "  Blessed  Mary,  mother 
of  Jesus,"  of  the  Catholics,  or  Brahma,  the  Hindoo's 
God,  —  they  will  all  be  one,  and  there  will  come  to  be 
such  faith  and  such  liberty  as  shall  redeem  the  world. 
—  Lucretia  Mott. 


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"  No  one  can  know,"  says  the  author,  "  better  than  I  do,  how  poor  and  dim  a 
presentation  of  a  great  truth  my  words  must  give.  But  I  write  them  in  the  hop* 
that  they  may  suggest  to  some  minds  what  may  expand  in  their  minds  into  a  truth, 
and,  germinating  there,  grow  and  scatter  seed-truth  widely  abroad.  I  am  sure 
only  of  this :  The  latest  revelation  offers  truths  and  principles  which  promise  to 
give  to  man  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  his  being  and  of  his  relation  to  God,  —  of 
the  relation  of  the  Infinite  to  the  Finite.  ...  And  therefore  I  believe  that  it  will 
gradually,  —  it  may  be  very  slowly,  so  utterly  does  it  oppose  man's  regenerate 
nature, — but  it  will  surely  advance  in  its  power  and  in  its  influence,  until,  in  ita 
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This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


SEP  18 

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REC'OLD-UR 


APR  Oi  1998 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORNIA-LOS  ANGELES 


L  007  694  386  9 


